APC accepts Saraki as Senate President.

The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Chief John Odigie-
Oyegun, on Friday said the party had accepted Senator Bukola Saraki as the
President of the Senate.

He said the reality was that Saraki’s colleagues had duly elected him and the
party was ready to live with the reality.

Odigie-Oyegun spoke with State House correspondents shortly after joining
members of the transition committee set up by President Muhammadu Buhari
to present their report to the President at the Defence House, Abuja.

Saraki and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, both of
the APC, emerged as leaders of the National Assembly on Tuesday against the
directives of the party which had earlier asked its members to vote for Senator
Ahmed Lawan and Femi Gbajabiamila.

Since their emergence, the party had insisted that Saraki, Dogara and their
supporters would be sanctioned.

When asked specifically whether the party would accept Saraki as the President
of the Senate, Odigie-Oyegun said, “Of course! He has been duly elected by his
colleagues. We have a reality and we must live with it.”

On Saraki’s aborted visit to the APC secretariat on Thursday, the party
chairman said there were a lot of consultations going on at that time and he
could not have been in two places at the same time.

He however said party chiefs were already talking with Saraki and would not
want to make noise about it.
“Nothing went wrong (on Saraki’s aborted visit), there were a lot of
consultations and you can’t be in two places at the same time.
“So, it was not comfortable for us, but we have been talking. We don’t want to
make a song and dance of it, everything is being put in proper perspective,” he
said.
On the crisis that erupted in the party after the elections in the National
Assembly, Odigie-Oyegun said the APC had faced greater challenges before and
the latest one too would pass away.

“It is not the first or second time we have passed through this kind of scenario
and we came out strong. This may not even be the last time, we come out
every time stronger and more determined,” he said.
The party chairman said what happened was within the APC family and they
were sorting it out within the family.

He added that aggrieved persons who threatened to go to court were doing so
within their rights.

“People say they are going to court which is their right, but as a party, we are
looking at everything and we are coming out strong,” he concluded.

  culled from ThePunch