Senators elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and loyal to Senate President, Bukola Saraki has told the party’s National Working Committee that they want the Code of Conduct Trial of the senate president dropped, The Punch reports.
The senators said this during an APC caucus meeting with the party’s NWC Tuesday. The meeting which held behind closed doors started at 2.45pm and ended at 5.25pm.
The meeting, which was held in Room 022 in the New Building section of the National Assembly Complex, Abuja, began shortly after Saraki and the National Chairman of the APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, led others to the venue at 2.30pm before journalists were sent out at 2.45pm.
Delivering the opening remarks, the Majority Leader of the Senate, Senator Ahmad Lawan, said the event was historic as it was the first time the leadership of the party would be meeting with the senators.
He said; “This will be the first meeting of the APC Senate caucus with our National Working Committee. On behalf of my colleagues here, Mr. Chairman, I welcome you to this historic, memorable and very important interaction with the Senate APC Caucus of the National Assembly,” he said.
APC chairman Odigie-Oyegun, who described the meeting as historic, called on the senators to “cease fire”.
He said, “My appeal is that as we start now the process of reconstructing relationships and consultations, there should be what I will call a ceasefire in terms of the kind of abuse that is used all round on one institution of government or the other, even principal parties of these institutions.”
Saraki on his part said regular consultations between the caucus and the party was important.
He stated, “Despite all the noise you heard last week, we still passed an amendment to the INEC law that had been there for over six or seven years.
“By this time next week, our Committee on Petroleum will lay the PIB, which has never been done.
“It’s unfortunate but the most important thing is that a lot of stakeholders must respect these institutions. These institutions are there now and they are going to be there after, and we should not allow our selfish interests to enable us to try and ridicule the institutions.”
When asked on the suspension of former majority leader, Senator Ali Ndume. the senate president replied, “Your question again is distracting from the issues. You have 108 senators here and you have the National Chairman. Let us focus on national issues.”
A source privy to information at the meeting said the senators loyal to Saraki were unhappy with the trial of the senate president, describing it as political.
The source said; “The APC leaders said we were too confrontational against the President.
“They said the Presidency was not supposed to be finding things difficult with us since we belonged to the same party.
“However, several senators explained that they were not happy with the President’s style. They complained that the President was not giving them due consideration especially. They said most of the people the President was appointing were unknown to them.
“Some of the senators also asked the party leadership to ensure that Saraki’s trial at the CCT was stopped as this would be the perfect way to reconcile the two arms of government.”
It was gathered that the party’s leadership promised to relay the issues to Buhari as the senators said they would ensure that the 2017 budget was swiftly looked into as well as the screening of the Resident Electoral Commissioners and ministers.
Join our twitter community :