President Muhammadu Buhari told warring members of the House of Representatives to accept the party's stance on allotted political offices.
President Muhammadu Buhari, on Monday, July 27, stressed his stand on the National Assembly’s leadership crisis, that the party’s position is supreme.
According to the Nation, Buhari is said to have told the lawmakers: “Obey the party.”
The feuding parties – headed by Speaker Yakubu Dogara and former House Minority Leader Femi Gbajabiamila – refused to shift ground on the sharing of principal officers’ positions.
The meeting, which was held at the new Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, began at about 5.40pm. It lasted just 20 minutes.
Dogara and Gbajabiamila led their groups to the meeting, which was attended by some members of the APC National Working Committee (NWC), led by the party’s National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun.
Gbajabiamila’s group is demanding that the APC’s position on the selection of principal officers be implemented by the Speaker, whose Consolidation Group believes that federal character must be reflected in the sharing of offices.
But, at the end of the 20-minute parley, both groups were optimistic that the end to the crisis was in sight.
On emerging from the meeting, both camps agreed with the President’s counsel that the party should not be undermined.
The President was said to be unequivocal that the “unity of the APC in the House is central to ensuring that the party delivers the promised change to Nigerians”.