nPDP members meet APC leadership, soften tone

Aggrieved members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) under the aegis of the nPDP appear to be reaching some form of consensus going by comments by one of theirs leaders, Alhaji Kawu Baraje, after a meeting with a delegation of the APC National Working Committee (NWC) in Abuja on Monday.
On the meeting, Baraje said that it was “very beautiful”.
He added: “So far so good, we have just started and when you start a race, you don’t say whether somebody wants to see you until you are getting to the middle or to the end. But it is a good start, it is a good beginning,” he stated.
“As you are aware, we requested to see the party’s national leadership, and the party, very sensitive party, very responsible party, responded to our requests adequately and we think it is a very encouraging time.
“Since last week, they have gotten across to us, but because of one logistics or the other, we couldn’t come until today. We begged the party to shift the day till today and today we have seen our party.
“We are party members, this office is our office, we have only come home to discuss those observations we copied you people when we wrote our letter”.
He also denied speculations that the group, which broke away from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) shortly before the 2015 elections to join the APC, was planning to dump the ruling party.
Also speaking after the closed-door meeting at the APC National Secretariat, the party’s Deputy National Chairman (North), Senator Lawali Shuaibu who led the APC team said: “We have not yet resolved. They wrote a letter to us; they are partymen, they have grievances; we looked at the letter, their grievances are genuine. And they requested a meeting within seven days and, before the seven days expired, I called them and they were not ready to come; they said we should shift the meeting till today, which we did.
“So, we are listening to them, we have listened to them and we are taking up their matter seriously, we will address it. We don’t ignore our people, except if you don’t send your grievances to the party; but if you send, we will always address your grievances”.
He promised that the party will address the the grievances of the angry group.
In Ilorin, the Kwara State capital at the weekend, Baraje told a group of journalists that the APC was on the verge of washing its dirty linens in public if it went ahead with its national convention.
He predicated his position on the goings-on in the party  adding that even the PDP was not as divided as the APC is today.