The National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Felix Morka has reacted to the absence of Mallam Nasir El-Rufai at the party’s leadership meeting saying he is unsure if the former Governor of Kaduna State is a member of the National Executive Committee (NEC).

He made this known after leaders of the ruling party met at the National Secretariat of the party for its NEC meeting in Abuja.

In the Channels Television interview, he said he was unsure of the standing of the APC founding member or if he was a member of the party's NEC.

“Today, you know, there was a roll call of eminent members who attended this meeting today. The same way notice was sent to El-Rufai I believe, was how notices were sent to these other members who got the notices and attended.

“Many of them don’t live in Abuja but they made plans and traveled to be at this meeting today. If El-Rufai, you know, wanted to be at the meeting, I bet you, he would have come.

“By the way, let me not say this, because I don’t know how to check. I don’t know if he’s a member of NEC. Of certainly a member of caucus, but I don’t know that he’s a member of NEC. I mean, I doubt that,” he stated.

The NEC meeting which is the first since the 2023 presidential elections was attended by all members of the National Working Committee, NWC, as well as members of the Forum of State Chairmen, former governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari, Minister of Budget and National Planning, Atiku Bagudu, and Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Kalu.

The leader of the party, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shetimma, Senate President, Goodwill Akpabio, and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, were all in attendance.

The NEC meeting comes a day after the national caucus meeting of the party at the Presidential Villa, also in Abuja.

And some of the underlying issues bedeviling the party may have led to the absence of the likes of El-Rufai and former Rivers State Governor, Chibuike Amaechi at the meeting.

Recall that during a recent interview, El-Rufai had accused President Tinubu and the National Security Adviser, NSA, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, of orchestrating his failed ministerial nomination.

He claimed that Tinubu personally did not want him in his cabinet, dismissing the notion that a security report was responsible for his exclusion.

He also accused Ribadu of undermining him due to the NSA’s alleged presidential ambition for 2031.

El-Rufai has also been vocal about the lack of internal democracy in the ruling party.

NBA