Connect with us

News

JUST IN: El-Rufai resigns from APC, joins SDP

Published

on

96 Views

Nasir el-Rufai, former governor of Kaduna state, has resigned his membership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and has joined the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

The development lays to rest months of speculation regarding el-Rufai’s immediate political plans.

The former minister of the federal capital territory (FCT) has paid visits to political party chieftains, including Atiku Abubakar, on Sunday.

In January, el-Rufai met with Hamza Al-Mustapha, ex-aide to late Sani Abacha; Shehu Gabam, national chairman of the SDP; and other politicians in the nation’s capital.

Segun Sowunmi, a former spokesperson of the Atiku Abubakar campaign organisation, said the meeting was to strategise ahead of the 2027 elections.

In February, el-Rufai said the distance between himself and the All Progressives Congress (APC) had “widened”.

He also criticised the party for not holding meetings regularly, adding that the leadership is running the APC like a “one-man show”.

El-Rufai has been critical of President Bola Tinubu’s administration since the senate declined to confirm him as minister. 

In February, el-Rufai said Nigerians should not believe the narrative that the national assembly rejected him as a ministerial nominee, noting that Tinubu did not want him in his cabinet.

“The president publicly appealed to me to put my plans on hold, and through two months of negotiation, we finally agreed that he would nominate me as minister,” he said.

“Please don’t believe the story that the national assembly rejected me. The president did not want me in his cabinet. He changed his mind.”

El-Rufai was governor of Kaduna from 2015 to 2023.

More to follow…

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

News

BREAKING: Fire guts Fresh FM office in Ibadan

Published

on

18 Views

A fire outbreak has been reported at a popular Ibadan radio station, Fresh FM, at Felele area in Ibadan South-West local government area of the Oyo State capital on Friday.

The incident, which started a few hours ago, has disrupted other related activities at the station.

A staff member of the station, @Arugboboisi, confirmed the incident on Friday evening in a post on his X handle.

He appealed to the Fire Service to respond without delay and urged the public to help spread the word and notify the nearest fire station.

“Fresh FM is currently on fire! We urgently need the Fire Service to respond immediately. Please retweet, spread the word and alert the nearest station,” he posted.

In another post, he shared the fire raging with “What a night” as the caption.

It is unclear what caused the fire, whether it has been put out or the extent of the damage.

Continue Reading

International

APC Declares Canadian IAD Reports False

Published

on

36 Views

Felix Morka, the National Publicity Secretary
All Progressives Congress (APC) on Friday urged the Party faithful, supporters and all Nigerians to disregard the report labelling the party as a terrorist organisation by the Canadian Immigration Appeal Division [IAD), saying its false and misleading.

Morka, in a statement on Friday, stated categorically that the Canadian court did not declare APC as a terrorist organisation, contrary to highly erroneous media reports in circulation.

He clarified:

“As reported, the declaration was allegedly made in the case of Douglas Egharevba and the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, in which the Applicant (Douglas Egharevba) sought judicial review of a decision by ] which determined that the Applicant was inadmissible in Canada under its Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA).

In a decision in the matter dated June 17, 2025, Judge Phuong T.V. Ngo dismissed the application for judicial review on the ground that the Applicant was a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and that the PDP was an organization engaged in acts of subversion under paragraph 34(1)(b.1) of the IRPA making him inadmissible in Canada.

In his analysis, the Judge stated, “As such, applying the reasonableness standard of review, I cannot find the IAD’s conclusion that the Elections in question constituted a democratic process or institution and that the PDP, its members and supporters engaged in subversive acts committed against the electoral process for the improper purpose of maintaining political power to be unreasonable.”

To be clear, the only reference to APC in the entire 16-paged decision was in the introductory “Background”, Paragraph 4, where the court referenced a “Background Declaration Form in which the Applicant stated that “he was a member of the People’s Democratic Party [PDP] of Nigeria from December 1999 until December 2007, and a member of All Progressives Congress [APC] party of Nigeria from December 2007 until May 2017.”

For the record, APC was not in existence as of 2007.

The Party was registered in 2013. The Applicant’s claim of membership of APC as of 2007 is evidently false, as he could not have been a member of APC, which didn’t exist then.

For the avoidance of doubt, we dare to state that the court never made any determination on the question of terrorism in its decision. In the Judge’s own words:

“Having found that the IAD’s analysis on subversion was reasonable, this is sufficient to dismiss the application for review. I will therefore refrain from analysing the IAD’s findings on terrorism.”

Clearly, reports that the APC was declared a terrorist organisation by the Canadian court in this matter are patently erroneous, if not mischievous.

The court did not make such a declaration, and could not have done so, as that would be an unjustifiable overreach and a major breach of fair hearing, among other due process rights, given that APC was not a party to the proceedings.

Such a decision would also have been of absolute irrelevance as being made without jurisdiction, and of no extraterritorial applicability or significance. “

Continue Reading

News

Okonjo-Iweala Says Nigerian Economy now stable under Tinubu

“The reforms have been in the right direction. The next step is growth, and alongside that, building social safety nets so those feeling the pinch of reforms can get support.”

Published

on

By

21 Views

THE Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, declared that President Bola Tinubu and his team have worked hard to stabilize the economy.

“You cannot really improve an economy unless it’s stable,” said Okonjo-Iweala during a meeting today with President Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

“The reforms have been in the right direction. The next step is growth, and alongside that, building social safety nets so those feeling the pinch of reforms can get support,” she said.

She added that growth, job creation, and income expansion must go hand-in-hand with measures to cushion the impact of ongoing reforms on vulnerable Nigerians.

Continue Reading

Trending