Buhari, El-rufai, Amaechi Stay Away As APC Holds NEC Meeting

Leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have gathered at the party’s National Secretariat in Abuja for this significant meeting.

Access to the meeting venue on Blantyre Street has been restricted, with a contingent of armed security personnel, including soldiers from the Guards Brigade, cordoning off the area.
Both vehicular and pedestrian traffic on Blantyre Street has been limited, and journalists have been kept outside, despite the issuance of an accredited list of reporters by party spokesman Felix Morka earlier that morning.
Among the early attendees were all members of the National Working Committee (NWC), the Forum of State Chairmen, former Zamfara State Governor Abdulaziz Yari, Minister of Budget and National Planning Atiku Bagudu, and Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu.

Governors from various states, including Edo, Benue, Ondo, Ekiti, Kaduna, Jigawa, Nasarawa, Yobe, Niger, Lagos, Kogi, Ogun, Imo, as well as the deputy governor of Ebonyi and former governors from Kogi, Kebbi, Niger, Zamfara, and Plateau, were present.

Notably absent from the NEC meeting were former President Muhammadu Buhari, former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai, and former Rivers State Governor and ex-Minister of Transport Rotimi Amaechi.
The gathering was attended by party leader President Bola Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shetimma, Senate President Goodwill Akpabio, and Speaker Tajudeen Abbas, who arrived at the venue around noon. The meeting was chaired by APC National Chairman Abdullahi Ganduje.

This NEC meeting, the first since Tinubu’s inauguration, follows closely on the heels of the national caucus meeting held at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

Some APC leaders, including El-Rufai and former National Vice Chairman Salihu Lukman, have expressed concerns regarding the absence of internal democracy within the ruling party.