An indication that the All Progressives Congress (APC) has reconsidered its hardline posture on the election of Senator Bukola Saraki as the Senate President emerged on Friday, with party chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun saying that Saraki was not only duly elected, but also that the party would work with him.

“Of course he has been duly elected by his colleagues. We have a reality and we must live with it.”

Saraki, along with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara had emerged on Tuesday, against the wish of the party, which had anointed different candidates for the posts.

An enraged APC threatened to sanction the two men. And on Thursday, 28 senators of the party walked out at the senate plenary session in protest against Saraki’s election, threatening also some legal action. Saraki, who presided ruled them out of order for raising the issue on the floor.

Signs that the party had accepted the reality were first indicated in the comments of Femi Gbajabiala, APC candidate for the Speakership of the House, who pledged loyalty to Yakubu Dogara.

Today, the APC chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, declared that the party had embraced the new reality and that it was prepared to work with the emergent leadership in the National Assembly.

Oyegun who spoke to State House correspondents after a meeting with President Buhari said: “We have faced greater challenges before and this too shall pass away.

“It is not the first or second time we have passed through and we came out strong. This may not even be the last time; we come out every time stronger and more determined.

“What has happened is within the APC family and we are sorting it out within the family. People say they are going to court which is their right, but as a party we are looking at everything and we are coming out strong.”

On Saraki’s aborted visit to the APC secretariat on Thursday he said: “nothing went wrong, there were a lot of consultations and you can’t be in two places at the same time and 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.”