SAN FRANCISCO, July 04, (THEWILL) – The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, has described as laughable charges by some people that he and some All Progressives Congress (APC) members in the House are planning to defect from the party to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
A statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs, Turaki Adamu Hassan, Saturday, said the Speaker made this known when he received in audience APC State party chairmen led by Alhaji Umar Haruna Doguwa and the acting Chairman of the forum, who is also the Kano State APC chairman in office in Abuja.
Dogara denied the allegations, saying it was only ludicrous for some people to insinuate that he and other APC members are planning to leave the party they helped to build.
“I want to discountenance this very ludicrous and laughable discussions that some of in the House are even conniving with some people so that we can defect. Only a fool will believe that.
“We have toiled day and night, we control the government at the centre, and in our states; then we pack and move to a house that we deserted before, it is even unthinkable and unimaginable that someone will even make such assertions,” he said.
Dogara also assured that the APC will overcome the current crisis.
According to him, “We have been through a lot, but obviously it’s expected as it is a new party. We are beginning to know ourselves, it is expected that from the beginning, we will have some kind of friction but we cannot be consumed by those frictions and like vehicles, from the frictions, we can gather the traction that we need to move forward and I guess that is one reason why we are here today.”
On party supremacy, the Speaker said although the party is supreme, absolute sovereignty and supremacy rest with the people.
According to him, “It is my deepest conviction as a student of democracy, I know that democracy is loosely defined as government of the people by the people and for the people. In actual fact, sovereignty in a democratic regime belongs to the people. The government is for the people and the party too is for the people.
“Absolute supremacy must be anchored on the sovereignty of our people because if we don’t pursue the interest of our people, you can guarantee the fact that sooner than later, there may be no APC.”
The Speaker assured the party chairmen that he and all APC members of the House are not disloyal to the party, saying “all of us contributed immensely to the building of the APC. It is our duty to ensure that the party survives. And they say it is only a mad man that will use the same hands that he used in building a house to pull it down. We are not mad, we are not fools.”
Dogara, warned that the APC risk losing popularity if it makes the mistake of marginalising some zones in the sharing of positions principal officers of the National Assembly because when elections come, the party will go back to the people to seek for their support
“We have to extend the hands of friendship and brotherhood to them to ensure that we strengthened their position so that we can make considerable inroad into those states. And if we don’t do that , then we should be counting our days because if Nigerians didn’t save PDP, if we mess up, they won’t save us. . We owe more than just passing interest in ensuring that we continue in the task of rebuilding the APC,” he said.
Speaking earlier, Doguwa said they were in the Speaker’s office to congratulate him and urged that he carries every member along in the running of the affairs of the House.
He also assured the Speaker of their readiness to support the leadership to ensure that they succeed.
Written by Muhammad Bello
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