ABUJA
The leadership crisis in the opposition African Democratic Congress ADC took a bizarre twist on Friday, following allegations by some state chairmen of the party that their signatures were forged in the bid by some elements to take over the party.
The state chairmen had accompanied ADC’s presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Dumebi Kachikwu, to Channels Television, where they featured on its evening programme, Politics Today.
Speaking on the programme, Kachikwu alleged that there were plans by the North to scuttle the 8-year tenure of a Southern presidency.
He said the design is to support former President Goodluck Jonathan to contest as a Presidential candidate, while another group in the North will convince the 2023 Labour Party LP Presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi, to also contest.
According to him, the South will then have three candidates in the person of the incumbent, President Bola Tinubu, Jonathan and Obi, while the North will queue behind one candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
He said the plot is to split the votes in the South, while the North will vote en masse for Atiku.
At an earlier news conference in Abuja, Kachikwu also declared that Atiku, Obi, Senator David Mark and others currently parading themselves as ADC leaders were wasting their time.
He described Atiku and the new ADC members as impostors who have no moral right to claim ownership of ADC.
Kachikwu said; “We are in court, but we are also dealing with the court of public opinion, and what they are doing essentially is claiming ownership of ADC in the media. That is why it is important for us to always come to the same media to ensure that people know the truth. That ADC is not in their control”.
According to him, the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC was dealing with the former ADC national chairman, Ralph Nwosu on a false premise.
He said some elements obtained a judgment in the Court of Appeal in Port Harcourt, forging the signatures of some of the state chairmen who they said entered into a consent judgment that proclaimed Nwosu as the chairman.
Kachikwu presented state chairmen from Nasarawa, Borno, Akwa Ibom, and Benue states to buttress his point.
The chairmen who were armed with their international passports said the signatures on their passports were different from those signed against their names in the said consent judgment.
Asked whether they knew who forged their signatures, they answered in the negative.
Kachikwu had earlier accused the new claimants of using the deposed national chairman of the party Ralph Nwosu to usurp the party’s platform to foist themselves on the genuine members of the party, describing the action as illegal and provocative.
He said he remained the authentic leader and potential candidate of the ADC in the next Presidential election.
“I intend to run again on the ADC platform in 2027 and I remain the candidate to beat in the next election,” Kachikwu declared.
Specifically, Kachikwu accused Atiku of being against the interest of Southern Nigeria by always presenting himself for the presidency in every election, and asked Nigerians to be wary of the former vice president.
Kachikwu said; “Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, a man who claims affinity and friendship with the south does not believe any southerner deserves to be president of Nigeria. Former Presidents Obasanjo and Jonathan are alive to attest to this uncomfortable truth. In their desperation to hijack the ADC they deliberately perpetrated fraud of which I now present evidence to you today.The courts are on break now. We will return to the courts when they resume.
“To use the ADC, they needed to free it of all legal encumbrances such as those challenging Ralph Nwosu’s fraudulent claim to the chairmanship of the party and so they forged signatures of some of the chairmen who were not interested in the sale of the party and presented it to the court as terms of settlement which the Court of Appeal adopted as judgement. I have here copies of said judgement and international passport copies of the chairmen whose signatures were forged, ladies and gentlemen of the press please compare the signature specimens.
“Our lawyers have dispatched petitions to the appropriate law enforcement agencies on this. As if this was not bad enough, we all watched almost two months ago the comedic performance of Ralph Nwosu as he anointed David Mark as chairman of the ADC and at the same time presented him with a membership card of our party.
“These men are following the law to correct their illegalities in full view of Nigerians, INEC and the media but nobody is asking questions because we are supposed to be a nation of anything goes.
“On a daily basis they are spreading deliberate falsehoods against not only President Tinubu but also against all potential southern aspirants for the Office of President. A Peter Obi has been told in very clear terms that he will never get northern votes as an Ibo man and as such he should accept to be Atiku’s running mate.
“In order to weaken the South, they have now drafted in former President Jonathan into the race who is alleged to be offering Peter Obi the position of coordinating Minister of the Economy for him to support his ambition.
In all these, Nigerians are the losers because meritocracy which can only thrive when ceteris paribus is in play has been thrown out of the door because of a truth ceteris paribus doesn’t exist in the Nigerian ecosystem.
“Sadly, I am now here before you championing the cause of a southern presidency, a notion that before now was totally against all I believed in. Nigeria has indeed happened to me.
“I urge all Nigerians to resist former vice president Atiku and his co-travelers who don’t believe in an equitable Nigeria. We must all come to equity with clean hands and sincerity of purpose.“We don’t burn our houses because we want to kill rats and cockroaches; sometimes we just need to make our houses clean so that rats and cockroaches leave on their own”.
