TheCable

Senate President Bukola Saraki is not among the members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the ongoing national executive council meeting of the ruling party.

The number three citizen was also absent on Monday night when President Muhammadu Buhari hosted the APC caucus at the presidential villa in Abuja.

The meetings, which Saraki has missed for the second time in a row, are strategic to the forthcoming election.

On Monday, the president told top members of the party to prepare for the 2019 elections. He also thanked them for standing by him “despite the antics of the opposition”.

Governors, ministers and top members of the ruling party are at the meeting holding at the headquarters of the APC in Abuja.

But Yakubu Dogara, speaker of the house of representatives, is not also at the meeting as Buhari had taken his seat at the time speaker arrived.

By protocol, all guest ought to have been seated before the arrival of the president.

Earlier in the day, Saraki was at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), where his trial was adjourned following a complaint by Kanu Agabi, his counsel.

Dino Melaye, senator representing Kogi west, accompanied him to the tribunal.