El-Rufai set to dump APC, visits Gowon after meeting SDP leaders

El-Rufai set to dump APC, visits Gowon after meeting SDP leaders

There are talks that a former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, may quit the All Progressives Congress (APC) and move to the Social Democratic Party (SDP) for the second time.

The rumour is coming after the APC chieftain had held meetings with SDP leaders.

El-Rufai also visited ex-military Head of State, Yakubu Gowon, at his residence in Abuja on Tuesday.

His second visit to SDP stalwarts on Tuesday has further fueled speculations that the former governor is planning to dump the APC.

El-Rufai lost his bid to become a minister in the President Bola Tinubu as he was screened out by the Senate over a damaging petition written against him.

He was however pictured at the Abuja residence of Senator Abubakar Gada, along with SDP chairman Shehu Musa Gabam and other party leaders.

Also reported to be present at the meeting were Senator Teslim Folarin, APC governorship candidate for Oyo State in the 2023 general elections, and Senator Nazif Suleiman, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party from Bauchi State.

The meeting at Gada’s home in Abuja on Sunday night came after El-Rufai hosted a Ramadan iftar at his Abuja residence.

Those at the Ramadan iftar include the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, Kashim Ibrahim-Imam and Shehu Musa Gabam.

El-Rufai also visited Gabam at the SDP secretariat.

Last Friday, a former spokesperson for the Atiku/Okowa Presidential Campaign Organisation, Daniel Bwala, said the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 Presidential Election, Peter Obi, was planning to leave the Labour Party and join El-Rufai in the SDP.

Bwala, in a post on his X handle, said Obi was planning to leave the Labour Party following the current crisis in the party with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) threatening to take over the party.

Obi, a former Governor of Anambra State, joined the Labour Party in May 2023 in the buildup to the 2023 general elections following his defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).