Respect the party’s decision, Oyegun tells Saraki, Dogara

John Oyegun, national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has urged all aggrieved members of the party in the national assembly to respect its decision in selecting Ahmed Lawan (Yobe north) as sole candidate for the office of senate president and Femi Gbajabiamila for speaker of federal the house of representatives.

Lawan emerged the sole candidate of the APC for senate president after a straw poll, which Bukola Saraki (Kwara central), his only challenger, boycotted on Saturday.

Also, Gbajabiamila emerged the sole APC candidate for speaker of the house after a similar process. But his only challenger, Yakubu Dogara, and his supporters walked out in protest of the election, calling it “an ambush”.

Speaking with journalists on the matter in Abuja on Monday, Oyegun said: “I want to appeal to APC members in the national assembly, both senate and the house of representatives, to respect the party, its view and the decision they themselves took in selecting the persons that will be presented to the national assembly as the presiding officers.

“I want to make it clear; all the party did was to provide a platform for all elected members of the party in stating their preferences. This they have freely done in front of the party leadership. It seems that some of the aspirants feel not satisfied with the preferences of the majority of the members but for me as the chairman and other members of the NWC, we want to appeal that no individual interest should be allowed to override the interest of the party as a whole.

“Members contested on the platform of the party, the party did not contest on the platform of members so the party’s views and methods of doing things should be respected. We realise that we cannot impose leaders on them; that was why we provided that platform for them to choose amongst them, who their leaders will be.

“We should let peace reign, we’ve all agreed to change and it must start with the conduct of the members themselves. To achieve this, Vice-president Yemi Osinbajo will also have the opportunity to address elected members in the national assembly members.

“This is the very first step of the distribution of the spoils of office. The APC has survived a lot of predictions; we have survived and put many doomsayers to shame; this too shall come to pass.”