Acting Chairman Insists APC Can’t Hold NEC Meeting

Hilliard Eta, the Acting National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has insisted that the ruling party would not convene an emergency National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting.

Recall that the APC Deputy Publicity Secretary, Yekini Nabena, had asked President Muhammadu Buhari to act fast by at least calling for the party’s emergency National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting to address the leadership crisis rocking the party.

But speaking to newsmen in Abuja on Sunday, Eta said the party would not succumb to the nationwide clamor as conveying a NEC meeting would violate the COVID-19 pandemic protocol prohibiting public gatherings, having over 120 members.

He said: “I do not believe there is anybody afraid or scared of convening NEC meeting. For those who want to build this party, who want this party to outlast this present government, they are such in number that there is no fear of convening NEC meeting,” he said.

“What has been militating against constituting NEC meeting in the recent past is, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic that has stopped everybody from gathering more than a certain number of persons.

“As you are all aware, we have over 120 members of NEC and it would amount to breaking the COVID-19 protocol as established by the Nigerian authorities prohibiting gathering of more than 50 people at a time. It will take our breaking that protocol for us to have a NEC meeting.”

While insisting that nobody is afraid of holding a NEC meeting, the APC acting chairman said the meeting would be held if the party can get a waiver.