The Presidency on Thursday said contrary to insinuations, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, was not expected at a meeting President Muhammadu Buhari had with some aggrieved members of the House elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress.
Rather, Dogara had earlier met with the President before the meeting on Wednesday night between Buhari and a group led by Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila.
The President was also quoted to have said during his meeting with the House members that his expectation was that Dogara and the President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, should have deferred to the party being products of the system.
These explanations were offered on Thursday night by the Senior Special Assistant on Media to the President, Malam Garba Shehu, sequel to insinuations that Dogara boycotted the meeting.
Shehu said that was not so as Dogara had met with Buhari and the President then needed to hear from the Gbajabiamila group.
The statement by the presidential aide read: “It was a mistake, possibly our own to have assumed that Speaker Dogara was expected at the meeting with President yesterday. He was not invited because he had had his own meeting with the President earlier on.
“The President having heard from the Speaker needed to hear out Gbajabiamila and the 174 APC loyalist members behind him.
“When he met the representatives of the APC caucus on Tuesday night President Buhari rued the fact that ‘we won the battle and lost the war’. Without mentioning him in names, said that ‘those who went with the PDP know that they are killing the APC’.
“He said he is thoroughly disappointed about what happened in the Senate and is still agonising over it, but equally blamed the APC majority for failing to assert their numerical superiority.
“He said he expected Senator Saraki and Dogara to bend in deference to the Party leadership, because, as he said, ‘we have to make the choice of either having a party or none at all. I believe in the superiority of the party over all members so this issue and all others, I will continue to stand with the Party,’ the President told the meeting.
“President Buhari is also expected to emphasise at tomorrow’s NEC meeting that he is a product the party due process himself, and would not allow due process to end with him.”
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