Senate President Bukola Saraki Reaches Out to Bola Tinubu in Bid to Reconcile

 Sources say that despite his public show of defiance, the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has started reaching out to some of the aggrieved leaders of the APC.

Saraki is one of the gladiators in the clash of egos and wills that followed the Senate leadership election on June 9 and subsequent appointment of principal officers.

The Senate President had earlier visited former President Olusegun Obasanjo to help him beg President Muhammadu Buhari. He also reportedly met with the Emir of Kano and Lamido Sanusi, on the same thing.

Last week, he sent Senate Leader Ali Ndume, Senator Kabiru Gaya, Senator Adamu Aliero, Senator Danjuma Goje, and Senator Abdullahi Adamu, on his behalf Saraki who all met with President Buhari and sought forgiveness on behalf of the Senate President for acting contrary to the dictates of the party.

A report in a national daily on Saturday also said the emissaries apologised to the President for the individual roles they played in the crisis. 

However, sources in the party said on Saturday that the emissaries also had a brief meeting with the party’s national leader and former Governor of Lagos State, Senator Bola Tinubu.

Many within the party see the crisis as a battle of wills with Buhari, Tinubu and some party leaders on one side of the ring and the Senate President and his backers on the other side. One of the prominent APC leaders that is believed to have backed Saraki is former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

But sources told our correspondent that Saraki, of recent, had made strenuous efforts to meet and appeal to Tinubu to sheathe his sword.

Saraki’s olive branch to Tinubu may mark a turning point in the crisis as the Senate President, before now, had insisted that he would not ‘beg’ the APC leader.

But the sources added that Saraki might have changed his position when all his efforts to get President Buhari to forgive him for his defiance to the party and move on.

It has been widely reported that Buhari has refused all entreaties to host the Senate President at the Presidential Villa since the controversial election in the senate. The President had also said the leadership of the senate should tow the party line.

Two APC officials yesterday shed light on Saraki’s last two attempts to reach out to the APC national leader. They said that one attempt occurred three weeks ago while the other took place on Thursday in Abuja.

“Three weeks ago he tried to get across to Tinubu through one of his aides. Of course, the aide couldn’t have arranged the meeting. Tinubu’s disposition to the matter is well known,” the source said.

The APC national leader, sources said, had told some of Saraki’s emissaries in the past that the senate leadership should toe the party line.

Another source said the last attempt took place during the week when the APC senators, who met with the President at the behest of Saraki, also tried to get across to Tinubu. A source close to Tinubu said while the former Lagos governor was aware of the move, his position on the matter had not changed.

The source stated that Saraki needed a long-term strategy to pacify the aggrieved party leaders, adding that the Senate President’s is perceived as haughty by some of these leaders.

“It is a surprise that he is reaching out to Tinubu. Saraki has no respect for Tinubu. He is contemptuous of him. During meetings he refers to him contemptuously as “Bola”. In fact there was a time that Tinubu wanted to explain a point to him and he shut him up,” the source said.

“Tinubu’s take is that the senate should toe the party line. It is not a personal problem at all. If it were a personal problem, the President won’t be reacting the same way.”

The National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Mr. Lai Mohammed said on Saturday that the APC believes in party supremacy.

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APC Crisis: Apologise to Me on National Dailies, Tinubu Tells Saraki & Dogara

 Although some chieftains of the All Progressives Congress, APC have initiated moves to reconcile the aggrieved camps and bring back peace in the party, its national leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is reportedly not yielding to it until his conditions are met.

 Vanguard exclusively gathered yesterday that Tinubu who felt greatly slighted by the elections of Senator Bukola Saraki and Rep. Yakubu Dogara as the senate president and the Speaker, House of Representatives respectively against the party’s official candidates, Senator Ahmed Lawan and Femi Gbajabimila had said of what can assuage his anger and that of the party.

 A competent party source told Vanguard in Abuja that principal among the conditions is that both Saraki and Dogara must tender and publish a full page apology publicly using the national dailies.

To this end, the source hinted that an extended meeting of the national leaders of the party with APC governors involved had been slated for next week.

The meeting, it was learnt, would hold either Monday or Tuesday.

“You don’t joke with the man (Tinubu). He said they must make a public apology to him using the newspapers. A meeting that will involve all APC governors has been scheduled to hold either on Monday or Tuesday. Wait and see what will happen. They have to do it”, the source said.

It was not ascertained whether president Mohmmadu Buhari would be at the meeting but Saraki and Dogara are expected to be at the meeting.

It will be recalled that after the National Assembly leadership that brought Saraki and Dogara as the new leaders of the 8th assembly, tempers have continued to flare up in the party.

Upon their elections on June 9, APC immediately issued a statement where it declared the outcome of the elections unacceptable and also threatened sanctions for the new leaders. The threat however divided the party with some of the national leaders frowning at the decision.

One of the them was the deputy national publicity secretary, comrade Timi Frank who also called for the resignation of the party’s national chairman, chief John Oyegun on the grounds of his failure to harmonize the variegated interests that later cost the party the office of the Deputy Senate President, DSP.

According to Frank, Oyegun compromised to have agreed to conduct the mock election that threw up Lawan and Gbajabimila as official candidates of the party.

Meanwhile, national chairman of the party, Oyegun has assured Nigerians that peace was underway in the party. Rising from the meeting of the National Working Committee, NWC which held at party’s national secretariat in Abuja yesterday, the chairman said that the party had reached out to all aggrieved parties, stressing that Nigerians would see a united APC by next week.

He also marshalled out defence for the party’s national publicity secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed who he said had been misunderstood in some quarters while discharging his responsibilities.

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Tinubu vs AIT Legal Battle : Court Grants Tinubu Accelerated Hearing

Below is a press statement...

 In a motion Exparte filed before an Ikeja High Court on Friday March 6th 2015, the court granted an accelerated hearing for motion on notice in the case of defamatory and libelous documentary aired on DAAR Communications, AIT. The granted accelerated hearing comes up on Monday March 16, 2015.

 The exparte motion brought before the Ikeja High Court - sought an order of interim injunction restraining  the respondent, AIT whether by itself, agents, privies and or other persons from producing  or continuing to broadcast, airing, or continuing to reproduce any defamatory documentary against the applicant which AIT started to broadcast on Sunday 1st of march , 2015 and has been repeating on a daily basis since then,

Pending the airing and determination of the motion on notice for interlocutory injunction dated 5th March ,2015  filed in this suit.

 The motion further noted as a fact that damages would not adequately compensate applicant/claimant if this ex-parte order is not granted.

 It prayed that the res of this suit may be extinguished if the ex-parte order is not granted. That there is real, imminent and urgent threat and danger of continuing to decimate the person and integrity of the applicant by the respondent by continuing to air the offensive broadcast if the ex-parte motion is not granted. That unless this application is granted, the defendant will not relent or suspend the broadcast of the said libelous documentary and that it is in the interest of justice to grant this application.

 The legal effect of the filing and notification of the pendency of a law suit under the legal doctrine of lis pendens is that all parties should exercise extreme caution particularly restraint in continuing with the act complained of. This is the minimal requirement of any law abiding citizen.

 This duty also extends to other members of the society who are expected to refrain from aggravating the damage complained of or in any way contributing to the quantum of damage. It takes on a more compelling dimension in this instance where the claimant has applied for injunctive restraining orders against the material complained against.

 The contrary can hardly be argued against the fact that affront to the judicial institution attracts criminal implications.

 The Tinubu legal team is led by Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN. Dr. Tunji Abayomi is also part of the legal team.

Sunday Dare

Media Adviser To Fmr. Governor Bola Tinubu

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And AIT Now Suing Bola Tinubu For N100billion

 Hopefully the coming elections won't be held in the court but polling station. Bola Tinubu's media office released a statement on Monday saying they are suing Daar Communications, owners of AIT for what he said was a defamatory content of a documentary aired on Sunday about him on their station. Tinubu asked the TV station to retract the documentary, issue a letter of apology and demanded N20billion as cost of damage done to his reputation.

 Now, AIT has counter-sued Tinubu. They are asking him to apologize for telling them to apologize to him when they were only just doing their job..lol. They are also asking for N100billion for injury inflicted on AIT. Choi! Lawyers go chop money anyhow. See AIT's press statement after the cut..

 Daar Communications Plc has reacted and rejected in their entirety the demands of Tunji Abayomi and co on behalf of Bola Tinubu over a documentary titled “Unmasking The Real Tinubu” transmitted on African Independent Television, AIT, according to a publication on its website.

 The demands, which Mike Ozekhome’s chambers describe as laughable, include the stoppage of further transmission of the alleged defamatory documentary, failure which Daar communications will be made to pay twenty billion Naira representing damages.

 In its reaction, Mike Ozekhome’s chambers on behalf of DAAR communications declares that AIT, in transmitting the documentary was only carrying out its constitutional responsibility to uphold the fundamental objectives of the constitution. It states further that the documentary merely stated that Bola Tinubu generally breached various portions of the Nigerian constitution. DAAR communications plc is therefore demanding a complete withdrawal of the letter under reference, which must be given wide publicity as that accorded the letter from the chambers of Tunji Abayomi.

 The media company demands an apology to be published in at least four leading national newspapers and four television stations, which must include NTA, Channels and AIT. The sum of one hundred billion Naira representing aggravated, punitive and exemplary damages for the irreparable injury inflicted on AIT is also being demanded.

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Former Lagos State Governor Bola Tinubu To Sue AIT

 Below is a press statement from APC Chieftain Asiwaju Bola Tinubu's media office....

 "All Progressives Congress National Leader Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is set to sue the management of the Daar Communications Limited, owners of the Africa Independent Television, AIT for the defamatory content of a documentary aired on Sunday.

Counsel to Asiwaju Tinubu, Tunji Abayomi, said a letter asking Daar Communications to apologize for the content and stop further airing was delivered this afternoon.

 A part of the letter to AIT reads, " ... You aired an hour long documentary focussing on our client (Bola Tinubu). Clearly pre-occupied with political resentment and hatred neither warranted, necessary, proper, or justified, you published several false allegations against our client...More disturbing is your misrepresentation that the said documentary was "sponsored" without disclosing the "sponsors". You cannot under law, hide under media freedom to maliciously injure a citizen's reputation".

The letter also demanded for N20billion (Twenty Billion Naira) as cost of damage done to the reputation of its client failing which the client will sue the company.

Another part of the letter reads: "…to affirm the right of our client against your defamatory publication, we demand that you confirm to us within 24 hours of receipt of this letter, an apology and retraction of the said publication/documentary."

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Bola Tinubu returns to Nigeria after Successful knee surgery in the US

Former Governor of Lagos State and leading founder of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has returned to Nigeria after months in the US where he went for knee surgery.We thank God for the successful surgical operation

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