Osinbajo meets nPDP group again

But further to his earlier meeting with the nPDP group, Vice President Osinbajo is billed for another parley Monday next week.
Disclosing this to newsmen in Abuja, Deputy National Chairman (North) of the party, Senator Lawal Shuaibu, however, denied that the aggrieved members asked that the trial of Senate President Bukola Saraki at the Code of Conduct Tribunal be stopped during their previous meeting.
“There was no time during Monday’s meeting the condition was given that Senator Bukola Saraki’s CCT trial must be withdrawn,” he clarified.
Shuaibu, who leads the party in the discussion with the nPDP members, said the new meeting agreed to have smaller representation to discuss specific issues raised by the group.
According to him, a smaller group of eight persons; comprising Osinbajo, the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami , SAN, himself and five representatives of the former nPDP members would form the meeting.
The previous meeting, Shuaibu recalled, had in attendance 20 former nPDP members and specifically centred on general discussions, stressing that next Monday’s meeting will “go into the business of discussing the former nPDP specific demands”.
He further said: “When we got to the meeting venue in Aguda House, the Vice President felt we were too many. He said for the meeting to achieve any meaningful result, we needed a much smaller group. On that, there were debates as to how many people.
The Vice President suggested that the nPDP bring three representatives, and then himself, the Attorney General and myself to make up three so that we have six. But they (nPDP) insisted that they needed more than three representatives and we finally settled on five. From there we went into general discussions, nothing specific.
“We said when they (nPDP) are ready with their five representatives, then we will sit down and go into the business of discussing the specific demands. There was no time during Monday’s meeting the condition was given that Senator Bukola Saraki’s CCT trial must be withdrawn.
“I don’t know where they got that story from. I have a strong feeling that whoever wrote that story was only being speculative because nobody could have said that.
“The content of the letter which is now public, that is what the basis of their demands are. At the next meeting on Monday, we will go into the specifics. That letter will be x-rayed point by point.”
Asked if the recent ward, local government and state congresses came up at the parley, the former lawmaker said: “The letter did not even bring the issue of congresses because it was written before we started congresses. But the issue of congresses was raised in the meeting of Monday. The House of Representatives Speaker, Yakubu Dogara raised the issue and we said when we come for the specifics, we will talk about that.
“When certain issues come up, there are ways we can always address them. Are you saying we can’t make amends? Yes we can. Decisions are made and amends of such decisions are always possible. Politics is not madness; there must be a way of accommodating people’s grievances. There must be a way of carrying people along, especially those who are left behind in any process.”