Atiku, Tinubu, Saraki meet with Osinbajo at Aso -- Daily Trust

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Ahmed Bola Tinubu and Senate President Bukola Saraki yesterday met behind closed-doors with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the State House in Abuja.
The meeting, which was held inside the Conference Room of the Vice President’s Wing, lasted for about four hours.

The meeting was also attended by APC National Chairman John Odigie-Oyegun; Secretary to the Government of the Federation; Babachir Lawal; former APC Interim National Chairman; Chief Bisi Akande; APC Deputy National Chairman (South-West) Segun Oni; Senate Leader Mohammed Ali Ndume; Chief Tony Momoh; Minister of Science and Technology, Ogbonaya Onu and Imo State Deputy Governor; Eze Madumere.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, was represented by his deputy, Yusuf Lasun.
Our correspondent reports that Senate President Saraki was the first to leave the venue of the meeting, followed by Atiku.
All the attendees left the Aso Rock Presidential Villa without speaking to journalists.
Later, the Special Adviser to the President on Political Affairs, attached to the Vice President Office, Babafemi Ojudu, told State House correspondents that it was a consultative meeting of select APC leaders to discuss party matters.
Ojudu, who saw some of the attendees off to their cars, asked journalists not to interview them.
It was, however, believed that the meeting attempted to resolve the frosty relationship between Tinubu and Saraki following the latter’s emergence as Senate president last year against the APC’s preferred candidate, Senator Ahmad Lawan.
The Senate president is currently being tried by the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) for alleged false assets declaration when he was governor of Kwara State. Senate Leader Ndume was recently reported to have reached out to President Buhari and Tinubu on Saraki’s behalf; the report he (Ndume) had denied. 
Yesterday’s meeting was also believed to have attempted to address the internal squabble between certain APC stalwarts over control of the party in connection with the build-up to the 2019 presidential race.
A source said the meeting might have also deliberated on appointments of boards and heads of federal agencies and parastatals. 
President Buhari had recently sacked 26 heads of federal government establishments. 
Speaking to journalists after the meeting, Ojudu said it was “just a meeting of party chiefs. It does not require that we should have an elaborate discussion with you. So, you should allow them to go freely on their own without being asked to come and grant interviews.”
Meanwhile, Osinbajo’s spokesman Laolu Akande, who did not attend the meeting, later issued a statement saying: “Select leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC), drawn from the party’s National Headquarters, the legislative and executive arms of government had a consultative meeting on issues affecting the party and the nation.