NASS Inauguration: APC Insists On Sanction For Erring Members

The National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Lai Mohammed, yesterday reiterated the party’s resolve to sanction erring party members.
Mohammed made the statement in Abuja after an emergency meeting of the National Working Committee of the party and some senators.
The party had described the conduct of some party members in Tuesday’s inauguration of the National Assembly as treacherous and the highest level of indiscipline
The party said the process that led to Sen. Bukola Saraki and Rep. Yakubu Dogara emerging as President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives respectively against the stand of the party was totally unacceptable.
His words ‘’Senator Bukola and Hon. Dogara are not the candidates of the APC and a majority of its National Assembly members-elect for the positions of Senate President and House Speaker.
The party duly met and conducted a straw poll and clear candidates emerged for the posts of Senate President, Deputy Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives, supported by a majority of all Senators-elect and members-elect of the House of Representatives.
“All National Assemblyý members-elect who emerged on the platform of the party are bound by that decision. The party is supreme and its interest is superior to that of its individual members,’’
The statement issued in Abuja Tuesday by its National Publicity Secretary,Alhaji Lai Mohammed further noted that the party is ready to saction all members who went contrary to its decisions .
‘’Consequently, the APC leadership is meeting in a bid to re-establish discipline in the party and to mete out the necessary sanctions to all those involved in what is nothing but a monumental act of indiscipline and betrayal to subject the party to ridicule and create obstacles for the new administration ‘’ He said.
According him APC decried a situation in which some people, pursuing their inordinate ambition and lack of discipline and loyalty, will enter into an unholy alliance with the very same people whom the party and indeed the entire country worked hard to replace and sell out the hard won victory of the Party.
‘’There can be no higher level of treachery, disloyalty and insincerity within any party,’’ the party said, vowing to resolve the matter using all constitutional and legal means available to it.
According to Mohammed, the sanction will come after due process.
‘’The party has not changed its position on the matter. Sanctions must follow due process,’’ Mohammed said. He said the reason the lawmakers were at the party secretariat was to confer with the party leaders.
‘’They came to confer with the party leadership, that’s all I am allowed to say.
“They are our senators; they came to confer on the crisis in the National Assembly. We will let you know the way forward,’’ he said.
Commenting on the absence of Saraki at the meeting, Mohammed said: ‘’I am not aware, probably if you wait you will see him.’’
The party chieftain said APC was not aware that the Lawan group had gone to court.
‘’I think the party made its expression clear on the matter, that it is unhappy with the outcome of the election and I think we won’t say anything beyond that.
‘’What the senators will do is within the capability and rights of the senators. I am not aware they have gone to court,’’ he said.
The Senate President intended to visit the party leaders but retraced his steps when he learnt of the presence of the group that came to visit.
However, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila, who last Tuesday lost the contest for the post of Speaker, House of Representatives, yesterday, pledged his loyalty to the leadership of Rt Hon Yakubu Dogara.
Speaking in Abuja, Gbajabiamila said Dogara’s emergence reflected the will of members of the House, and promised to support his administration to move the House  forward.
Meanwhile, the National Secretary of Labour Party (LP), Mr Kayode Ajulo, says the emergence of Bukola Saraki as Senate President, is a manifestation of the rule of law.
Ajulo told newsmen in Abuja yesterday that the process which led to the election of the Senate’s presiding officers was in line with the provisions of the Constitution.
He added that the development demonstrated that the era where a few individuals in a political party exerted overbearing control over majority of the members was over.
“This development is significant because it is a battle between the proponents of the rule of law and proponents of the whims and caprices of individuals.
“A few individuals always believe that they would always have their way over the popular majority. But they have been proved wrong.
“This is what a political party has caused itself because it chose to get some of its lawmakers to a meeting outside at the expense of inauguration which had constitutional proclamation’’, he said.
Ajulo faulted the lawmakers who went for a meeting outside the National Assembly.
“They deluding themselves that the inauguration would have been shifted to enable them to honour party directive.’’
He said the outcome of the election would serve as a lesson to political parties to know the limit of their powers.
“They went away on their own will thinking that the inauguration, which had presidential proclamation, would be put on hold.
“Political parties can meet in caucuses but cannot impose their directives on others. Members of the National Assembly should decide who presides over them.’’
A human rights lawyer, Mr Abang Odok-Ogar, said the outcome of the election of presiding officers of the National Assembly was a demonstration of the new democratic spirit in the country.
“That is a demonstration of pure maturity. It is a practical example of the kind of leadership we should expect from the new president.
“This will usher in a respectable executive-legislature relation.
“As long as the president adheres to democratic tenets in discharge of his statutory functions, the legislature would cooperate with the executive to deliver good governance.’’