Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu has confirmed that the President actually requested to have a peace meeting with all the National Assembly members-elect on the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC) in the morning of the day of their inauguration, but that the sudden election of Senator Bukola Saraki as Senate President stopped the President from going ahead with such meeting.
According to him, President Buhari communicated his intention to hold the peace meeting to the Clerk of the National Assembly, Salisu Maikasuwa and that Bukola Saraki was fully aware of it, adding that both Saraki and the clerk should have extended respect to Buhari by postponing the inauguration but they failed to do so.
The presidential spokesman who spoke on a programme in the Channels Television, Sunrise Daily yesterday, said that President Buhari did not bother attending the meeting with the 51 APC senators at the International Conference Centre because Saraki had emerged Senate President before the meeting could even hold.
“President Buhari had planned to be there (at the meeting) to show support for the party but once the process had begun, the point had been lost.
“Senator Saraki directly or indirectly and the clerk of the National Assembly were reached directly or indirectly and they would have shown that respect to Mr. President, but the process went ahead. And that is it.
“The clerk and Senator Saraki, the key characters in all of these, had sufficient information directly or indirectly coming to them that the President would be meeting the party members. The assumption would have been that every loyal and committed party member would have presented himmself to the party and to the
President. That did not happen yesterday (Tuesday).”
Garba Shehu said Saraki might still have emerged the Senate President but the inauguration of the Senate should have been delayed out of respect for the President, adding that the APC senators showed respect for the President by showing up for the meeting and did not err by doing so.
“They chose to be absent. They chose to respect their party and the President. Fifty APC senators decided to answer the call of the party and the President and were present at this meeting. It was not as if it was a secret meeting.”
Garba Shehu denied reports that Buhari lured the 51 senators to the ICC so that Saraki could emerge the Senate President.
He said that the meeting was not secret as it had been announced by the party the previous day.
“The party had begun a process and concluded it and some of these actors were part of that process. They knew what had happened. There was a shadow election of some sort. It is clear that there was nothing accidental in all of these things that happened. What I mean is that the APC, as a party, had begun a process for choosing leaders. There was a shadow election in which leaders were chosen on the platform of the political party and it
was complete. There was no doubt about it.” [myad]
Home NEWS Saraki’s Ambition Pre-Empted Buhari’s Planned Peace Meeting With APC National Assembly Members-Elect...
