As the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the All Progressives Congress (APC) draws closer, the party leadership has dismissed speculations that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu may ask the National Chairman, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, to step down.
The APC National Secretary, Senator Ajibola Basiru, refuted the rumors in an interview with The PUNCH ahead of the National Caucus meeting.
Addressing concerns over the NEC meeting’s agenda and speculation about Ganduje’s removal, Basiru dismissed the claims as baseless, stating, “There is nothing like that. The NEC is a routine meeting and not an elective one. We have been trying to have it since September last year. But now, it is confirmed we will have a national caucus on Tuesday and an NEC on Wednesday.”
According to Basiru, the meeting will focus on planning the party’s projects for 2025, reviewing financial statements as required by electoral law, updating members on the re-registration exercise, and briefing stakeholders on the establishment of the Progressive Institute, which serves as the party’s intellectual and ideological arm.
The upcoming NEC meeting will be Ganduje’s first major gathering of party stakeholders since assuming office as APC National Chairman. Both Ganduje and Basiru’s appointments were ratified at the last NEC meeting on August 3, 2023, at Transcorp Hilton, Abuja.
The crucial sessions of the two statutory organs will be chaired by President Bola Tinubu, with key figures such as Vice President Kashim Shettima, former President Muhammadu Buhari, Senate President Godswill Akpabio, his predecessor, APC governors (past and present), state party chairmen, the National Working Committee (NWC), and other stakeholders expected in attendance.
