President Muhammadu Buhari has reportedly appealed to Senate, President Bukola Saraki to shun any plan to defect from the ruling, All Progressives Congress, APC.

The party has been assiduously working to avert any impending plot by some of its bigwigs to defect from the party. In line with peace moves being spearheaded by the party, President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday met with Senate President Bukola Saraki, believed to be the arrowhead of the impending mass movement and appealed to him to stay back in the party.

Saraki and other aggrieved top members of the APC massed in the reformed All Progressives Congress (rAPC), including Governors Aminu Tambuwal (Sokoto), Samuel Ortom (Benue) and Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara) had met with the leaders of the PDP on Wednesday in Ilorin, the capital of Kwara State, to consider the absorption of the rAPC.

The PDP leaders, including Governor Nyesom Wike and the party’s National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, had gone to Ilorin ostensibly to commiserate with Alhaji Abubakar Baraje, an rAPC chieftain, over the death of his mother, a meeting to discuss their possible crossover to the PDP actually held.

Buhari’s meeting with Saraki, the outcome of which was not made public, held simultaneously with another, between Ortom, who had indicated on Tuesday that he had technically left the APC, and the National Chairman, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole.

The former Edo State governor publicly appealed to Ortom not to return to the PDP.

Saraki’s meeting with Buhari at the Presidential Villa Thursday was set up by APC governors, including Alhaji Aminu Masari (Katsina State), Senator Ibikunle Amosun (Ogun State) and Senator Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi State).