NIGERIA'S ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) intends going to court to challenge the election of Senator Bukola Saraki as the senate president after he surreptitiously emerged as senate president yesterday in controversial circumstances.  

Former Kwara State governor Senator Saraki was elected and sworn-in as senate president yesterday in defiance of the party. His election was highly controversial, however, as he was elected unopposed by 57 of 108 senators present, with 51 senators, including his main rival Senator Ahmed Lawan, absent. 

Apparently, the other APC senators were at the nearby International Conference Centre (ICC) in Abuja for meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari to resolve the issue of National Assembly leadership. Playing a fast one, Senator Saraki and his supporters reached a deal with the opposition People's Democratic Party (PDP) under which the PDP's Senator Ike Ekweremadu was elected his deputy with the former senate president Senator David Mark elected majority leader. 

Irate at the defiance of the party as none of the elected senate leaders were its choice candidates, the APC has vowed to challenge their election in court. APC publicity secretary Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the party will also be challenging the election of Hon Yakubu Dogara as the speaker of the House of Representatives in court, as he too was not the party's candidate. 

Alhaji Mohammed added: "We will challenge the National Assembly election results in court, as both Senator Bukola Saraki and Hon Yakubu Dogara are not our candidates for the positions. Senator Bukola and Hon Dogara are not the candidates of the APC and a majority of its National Assembly members-elect for the positions of senate president and House speaker. 

"The party duly met and conducted a straw poll and clear candidates emerged for the posts of senate president, deputy senate president and speaker of the House of Representatives, supported by a majority of all senators-elect and members-elect of the House of Representatives. All National Assembly members-elect who emerged on the platform of the party are bound by that decision as the party is supreme and its interest is superior to that of its individual members." 

Already, the APC leadership is meeting in a bid to re-establish discipline within the party and to mete out the necessary punishment to all those involved in what it sees as a betrayal. Over the weekend, the party held mock elections during which it elected senator Ahmed Lawan as its senate president and Hon Femi Gbajabiamila as the speaker of the House of Representatives. 

Meanwhile, President Buhari's spokesman has revealed that the meeting which APC senators attended at the ICC was called by the party leadership and not the president. Presidential spokesman Femi Adesina, insisted that the president did not convene the meeting, for which he did not show up. 

Alhaji Mohammed decried a situation in which some people, based on nothing but inordinate ambition and lack of discipline and loyalty, will enter into an unholy alliance with the very same people whom the party and indeed the entire country worked hard to replace and sell out the hard won victory of the party. He added that there can be no higher level of treachery, disloyalty and insincerity within any party.