Senator Bukola Saraki has finally been accepted as the Senate President by his party, the All Progressive Congress (APC).

Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, the APC national chairman, said the reality was that Saraki’s colleagues had duly elected him and the party was ready to live with such reality.

Odigie-Oyegun spoke with State House correspondents on Friday shortly after joining members of the transition committee set up by President Muhammadu Buhari to present their report to the President at the Defence House, Abuja.

Saraki and Mr Yakubu Dogara, Speaker of the House of Representatives,    also of the APC, emerged as leaders of the National Assembly on Tuesday against the directives of the party which had earlier asked its members to vote for Senator Ahmed Lawan and Femi Gbajabiamila. Since their emergence, the party had vowed to discipline Saraki, Dogara and their supporters.

When asked specifically whether the party would accept Saraki as the President of the Senate, Odigie-Oyegun said, “Of course! He has been duly elected by his colleagues. We have a reality and we must live with it.”

On Saraki’s aborted visit to the APC secretariat on Thursday, Oyegun said there were a lot of consultations going on at that time and he could not have been in two places at the same time. “Nothing went wrong (on Saraki’s aborted visit), there were a lot of consultations and you can’t be in two places at the same time. “So, it was not comfortable for us, but we have been talking. We don’t want to make a song and dance of it, everything is being put in proper perspective,” he said.

On the crisis that erupted in the party after the elections in the National Assembly, Odigie-Oyegun said, “It is not the first or second time we have passed through this kind of scenario and we came out strong. This may not even be the last time, we come out every time stronger and more determined,” he said.