The leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress has invited the President-elect, Bola Tinubu; his running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima; senators-elect and members of the House of Representatives-elect on its platform to a crucial meeting.
The closed door meeting, which is scheduled to hold at the State House in Abuja on Monday, has got political stakeholders pondering what it is all about.
Though the agenda for the meeting was not stated, a source at the APC secretariat told PUNCH that it had to do with early consultation and strategic plans concerning the issue of zoning of the Senate presidency, Speaker for the House of Representatives and other principal offices in the National Assembly.
“We have a feeling that this was a frantic effort to avoid a repeat of the coup that brought in Senator Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara as Senate President and Speaker of the House in 2015, respectively,” the source stated.
The source explained that the “ghost of the civilian coup” executed by Saraki and Dogara in 2015 was still haunting the ruling party.
According to him, the situation could have been averted if both politicians had considered party supremacy ahead of their selfish interests.
The invitation to the meeting, which was signed by APC National Secretary, Iyiola Omisore, was also published on the party’s official Twitter handle around 10.08pm on Friday.
While requesting the guests to come along with the Certificates of Return issued by the Independent National Electoral Commission after they were declared winners, the statement also urged them to arrive early enough to participate in a screening before the event slated for 2pm would commence.
The invitation read, “This is to inform all Senators-elect and members of the House of Representatives-elect of the All Progressives Congress (APC) that they are invited to a parley with the party’s national leadership.
“The meeting, which will be attended by the President-elect and Vice President-elect, will be held at the State House Banquet Hall, Aso Rock Villa, Abuja. Senators/House of Representatives-elect must come to the meeting with their Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Certificates of Return and must come alone.
“The meeting is strictly on invitation. Date: Monday, 13th of March, 2023. Time: 2pm prompt. Venue: State House Banquet Hall, Aso Rock Villa, Abuja. All invited guests are expected to arrive early to allow for screening and be seated before 12noon.”
Confirming the agenda of the meeting, a member of the APC NWC, on condition of anonymity, said, “The meeting is going to deal with the issue of who leads the next National Assembly. You know we cannot stand aloof and allow everyone to continue spending money in wooing their colleagues for their ambitions.
“We are also trying to prevent power brokers and external forces from hijacking the next National Assembly. The President-elect will not stand by like the current President and allow power seekers and enemies to hijack the National Assembly. It is not in the interest of the President-elect and not in the interest of the ruling party as well.
“Yes, the President is aware of the meeting, but he is not attending. We took the meeting to the Villa in order to limit the number of attendees and prevent those not invited and also our enemies from coming.”
The invitation to the meeting is coming on the heels of calls by concerned members of the party, including the National Vice Chairman (North-West) and member of NWC, Mallam Salihu Lukman, who insisted that there was a need to lock down the sensitive positions of the Senate president Speaker after the posts of President and Vice-President had been zoned to the South-West and North-East regions, respectively.
