Tinubu, APC leaders arrive party secretariat for NEC meeting

Leaders of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) have begun arriving at the party’s national secretariat ahead of its National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting slated for about noon today.

Security officials, comprising personnel of the Nigerian Police Force (NPF), Mobile Police and soldiers have also barricaded the roads leading to Blantyre Street where the APC secretariat is located at Wuse 2, Abuja. Vehicular and human movement has also been partially restricted on the street.

Party members who have arrived as of 9:50 a.m. include Benue State Governor, Hyacinth Alia, among others.

President Bola Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettima, Senate President Goodwill Akpabio, and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas are expected to be in attendance.

The party also held its caucus meeting presided over by Mr Tinubu at the state house on Tuesday.

Speaking after the caucus meeting, the Chairperson of the Progressive Governors Forum and Governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodinma, said the party is united, stronger, focused and supportive of the Tinubu administration.

This is the first NEC meeting under Mr Tinubu’s presidency since he assumed office in May 2023.

The meeting initially scheduled for 11 and 12 September was postponed indefinitely and is now set to hold today (Wednesday).

The meeting comes at a time an internal wrangling appears to be rearing its head into the party.

Former governor of Kaduna State Nasir El-Rufai, one of the founding members of the APC, recently accused the party of turning away from the progressive ideals.

Mr El-Rufai whom the National Assembly rejected after he was nominated a minister in Mr Tinubu’s cabinet, said the president was in fact the one who didn’t want him in the cabinet and not the National Assembly that rejected him.

“The president didn’t want me in his cabinet,” Mr El-Rufai declared during a recent interview on Arise Television, speaking for the first time since his nomination as a minister was rejected. “The National Assembly has nothing to do with me.”