Onyekachi Eze 
…Says party’ll address legitimate grievances
The Interim National Publicity Secretary of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, has said it is united and is not factionalised in any way.
Mallam Abdullahi, who spoke at an interactive session with journalists in Abuja over the weekend, said the decision that brought the new leadership was unanimously taken at the 99th National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the party, which was observed by the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) “as required by the process, by the rules.”
Abdullahi, who reacted to the purported court order restraining INEC from recognising Senator David Mark and Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, as the National Chairman and Secretary of the party, respectively, said no such injunction was given.
“We know from day one that what brought us into the coalition, the very forces that were destabilising the other opposition political parties, are not going to allow the ADC coalition to just fly without challenge,” he said.
He alleged that the people spreading the stories that the court has restrained the party leadership are people who are directly connected to people within the government circle.
“It is the continuation of the same agents of destabilisation that have been working so hard to ensure that Nigeria is dragged down to a one-party state.
“Luckily for us, unfortunately for them, the ruling was very clear. The prayer that was put before the court was outrightly rejected, and the only thing here that has implication for us is that we should be put on notice and that we should make our appearance on September 15,” he said.
Abdullahi stated that the court could not have given such an injunction because INEC had already recognised the leadership.
“So you can’t give an injunction to something that has already happened,” he added, and remarked that the question of leadership of a party has been settled by the Supreme Court.
“The leadership of a party and the candidate of a party is entirely the business and the decision of the party; that is the Supreme Court position.
Whatever they are doing is not going to hold water; it’s doomed to fail.
“We just didn’t expect that they would go as low as dragging the reputation of the judiciary into their political fight.
“So we, as the African Democratic Congress, are not going to be bothered by this. We’ve taken our decisions, we’ve moved on, and we are focused now on just building our party,” he stated.
The ADC’s spokesperson said the party’s candidate in the 2023 presidential election, Ibe Kachukwu, is no longer a member of the party.
He described some narratives of the erstwhile candidate as disturbing and accused him of making inflammatory and divisive statements.
“When you begin to castigate people on account of their age, when does it become a crime to be an older person? These are things that people get arrested for in civilised societies, to profile people in a way that shows that you are excluding them for one reason or another from their democratic rights. Is it a crime to be an older person?
“He keeps talking about North, South, these Northerners. Who talks like that? And this is someone who, no matter how ridiculous, aspired to be the president of Nigeria. And he’s promoting such divisive rhetoric,” said.
Mallam Abdullahi, however, said the party is ready to discuss with anyone who has genuine grievances.
“We had people who had expressed one grievance or another. We have managed to recognise some grievances, legitimate grievances, and we have dealt with them.
“But when people are just being belligerent, to the extent that you have no reason to doubt that they had an ulterior motive, which is to destabilise the party and create a condition that makes it difficult for the party to move forward. We can’t continue to appease those kinds of people.
“So tomorrow, if whoever is willing to sit down to have a conversation to say, look, this is my grievance, or these are my grievances, and I will be happy for it to be addressed. I can assure you that those grievances will be addressed to the extent that they can be accommodated.
“But if what you are doing is to continue to drag the party back, to continue to create a condition that Nigerians would think that we are permanently in crisis, don’t forget this was the same thing that was done to PDP. This was the same thing that was done to the Labour Party. This was the same thing that was done to SDP,” he noted.
Abdullahi stated that the person who went to court to challenge the ADC leadership does not have the resources to do so.
“So who is funding it? Who is encouraging it? So if they are willing to talk, we are willing to talk to them.
“But if what they want to continue to do these things that they are doing, we’ll move on and we’ll be willing to match them for whatever it is worth.
