Buhari meeting with APC reps ends in deadlock

TROUBLE is not yet over for the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the meeting called on Monday by President Muhammadu Buhari to resolve its leadership crisis in the House of Representatives ended in a deadlock.

Yakubu Dogara

The APC House members, led by the Speaker, Honourable Yakubu Dogara, met with the President for about 20 minutes at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, but were unable to reach a common ground as factions loyal to the Speaker and former Minority Leader of the House, Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila, gave contrary opinions on what transpired at the meeting.

Gbajabiamila narrowly lost his bid to become Speaker of the House of Representatives to Dogara despite being the favoured for the post by the leadership of the party.

His bid to become the Leader of the House is also being resisted by the House leadership which was reported to have zoned the position to the North West and effectively knocking out the Lagos lawmaker.

The House leadership has, however, conceded the position to a member of the Gbajabiamila group who must be from the North West in order to maintain the Federal Character principle in the appointment of principal officers of the House but this had not gone done well with Gbajabiamila’s loyalists.

President Buhari had therefore convened Monday’s meeting to find a way out of the logjam.

Also in the meeting were the Deputy a Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable Yusuf Lasun; APC National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun and some members of his National Working Committee (NWC) including National Secretary, Ibrahim Gubi; National Deputy Chairman South, Chief Segun Oni and National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.

Emerging from the meeting, Dogara told correspondents that the meeting was a family meeting but noted that consultations would continue intoMonday night with the hope that the leadership crisis could be resolved.

“I believe that by this night, there will be compromise. We are still talking. But I think this is the first time everybody coming together in a cordial atmosphere,” he said.

In his remarks, Chief Odigie-Oyegun said so much ground was covered in the 20-minute meeting, saying, “You will be very surprised that a lot was achieved in 20 minutes.”

He was confident that a compromised had been reached, saying, “I have a feeling in another three four hours and by tomorrow, we will have come to a compromise and have good news for the nation.”

Also speaking, Gbajabiamila described the meeting as a ‘family meeting,’ insisting that discussion would go on among the party members to resolve the lingering crisis.

“It is not about magic. This is a family that has come together and we are here to resolve the problem and we shall move ahead to resolve the issue this evening,” he said.

Buhari meeting with APC reps ends in deadlock