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ADC: After failed bribery, they’re now intimidating us, Nwosu cries out!
The Federal Government and the All Progressives Congress (APC) are certainly not relenting in their attempts to scuttle coalition of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), going by the testimony of Ralph Nwosu, erstwhile National Chairman of the party.
Nwosu, who had earlier claimed that the government tried to bribe him to halt the use of the political platform for the coming together of the influential politicians under the coalition arrangement, dug in on Wednesday with his story, saying he was already compiling data of those who have embarked on the mission.
A guest of Prime Time, a public affairs programme on ARISE NEWS, television network, Nwosu, informed that the failure to get their way had forced the government to become desperate and now on the mission of using the instrumentality of government institutions to accomplish the same goal.
He however vowed that no offer or inducement from the Tinubu administration would deter the party from opposing efforts to turn Nigeria into a one-party state, stressing that the government was now bribing former officials of the party to go to court against the coalition.
Hear him: “As a matter of fact, what I did at our NEC meeting was to send a signal so that the presidency and our people pretending Democrats who are on the other side, to be careful. Because they are ruining our system and we have struggled for that.
“I sent the last signal to them and so on… What I’ve said wouldn’t be new to any national party chairman, as I speak to you today… I just deliberately sent that signal. And if they don’t stay off, we are compelling them. I have a call and I have meetings and not only here in Nigeria. A couple of days,” he said, adding when pressed, “No, I will not.”
Pushing back against the denial of the government to his narrative, with Daniel Bwala, Tinubu’s spokesman, daring him to name names, Nwosu insisted that government-backed figures were working against ADC from within.
He added: “Boala, I wish you would come out and say why Elias, Godwin and Mohammed, they are doing in big hotels, being protected by government, the people paid police. They are still carrying the cards of ADC. But the government has used them to scuttle the things we’re doing.
“They have used them to go to court to say that they don’t agree with the things we’re doing. Therefore, it should be stopped. And they are being protected. We have pictures and we know where they are.
“They are now riding on SUV vehicles and they’re staying in luxurious hotels. We cannot afford that. Even me, you know, who until yesterday officially was the chairman, I can’t afford that.
“None. Because the Nigerian courts have said, come, politicians, go and sort out your problem,” he said, when asked how much of a threat these developments posed to the new ADC coalition.
“And that is why we have audaciously, and we will continue that process, to audaciously oppose anything that will make Nigeria to become a one party system under APC. It happened in Lagos, it cannot happen nationally,” he stated firmly.
Expressing his disappointment that rather than competing fairly, the ruling APC was bent derailing the coalition, Nwosu, who said that he was now a floor member of the ADC, stated: “There are people in APC who feel that if we offer this, and they feel it’s too small, we just up it… But this time they failed.”
Highlighting the party’s growing influence, he described how Babachir Lawal, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), has just requested an attrition 2.5million party cards for intending members in the North East part of the country.
“Babachir Lawal called me that they want 2.5 million membership cards for only the Northeast. Before, about two weeks ago, they bought only 500. Online membership registration has surged so rapidly that the ADC’s system had to be moved to a foreign server. Our website has moved into the Amazon… it crashed two times, and we had to move it into one of the sophisticated foreign warehouses.”
He also spoke on the refusal of some members of the party, kicking against the assemblage, particularly Dumebi Kachikwu, its presidential candidate in 2023, saying while others who were initially in his camp and were subsequently expelled had been recalled his sins were too heavy to be forgiven.
His words: “We had ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution), which our NEC organised, and we recalled those people. And in our NEC yesterday, we pardoned them of everything. But Dumebi Kachikwu… we said for him, we don’t want him anymore.
“He has been the number one agent that is collecting resources from anywhere and funding the process to derail what we are doing as far as consolidating our coalition is concerned. One of the biggest calls that the coalition has made, choosing someone like David Mark and Governor Aregbesola, critical. We’re just praying that everything will continue going well… all the ideas that the new leadership has will work out well moving on.”
Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, Governor of Oyo State, on Thursday, finally threw his hats into the ring by declaring his intention to run for president in 2027, with a message – history beckons.
The governor, whose ambition has been a matter of speculations for months now and who had teamed up with forces angling to force President Bola Tinubu, out of power, told a teeming crowd in Ibadan on Thursday that time had come to reset Nigeria.
At a mega-rally to announce the alliance between the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), and the Allied Peoples’ Movement, (APM), Makinde, expressed worry over the dwindling fortunes of Nigerians, vowing to engage Nigerians to end the drift.
Hear him: “Without a multi-party system, there is no democracy. Where is our multi-party? Where do we go from here? We have been pushed to the wall.
“They calculated and self-opposition cannot unite but I am here to say that the opposition is the everyday Nigerian. This is the time for all us to ensure Nigeria works for us. This is the time to confront it fears. It is time to engage as citizens and not spectators.
“For the opposition political parties, this is the time to unite and work in unity and give our nation the much reset it needs. The time to reset Nigeria is now. Ibadan is the city of warriors. The first grand alliance is formed. The PDP and APM is formed. This handshake will allow us to field candidates from presidency to state Assembly. And so, I declare my candidacy for office of the president of Nigeria.”
Eyo Ekpe, a professor of cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital (UUTH), on Wednesday, gave a detailed account on how operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) manhandled him on Monday.
He told reporters that he was at sea on why he should fall victim to the assault against his person and eventually arrested given that was not right person directly involved in the information the agency sought.
Some operatives of the EFCC who invaded the hospital, had whisked Ekpe away after firing teargas to scare away the workers, patients and visitors to the hospital, following what appeared like a fracas the ensued over what it claimed was a routine duty in the facility.
Ekpe, Deputy Chairman of the hospital’s Medical Advisory Committee (MAC), described how an operative had first entered his office to make inquiries on why the hospital was yet to give a response to an EFCC inquiry over a medical report linked to a suspect facing trial.
He detailed how he briefed the operative that the said response was being prepared and even went ahead to show him the draft of a letter in that regard, which needed to go through the gamut of official endorsement before being released.
Hear him: “The head of that internal medicine department looked at the report and also discovered that the name of the doctor that signed the report is not a member of staff of that department.
“I had prepared prepared a response to the EFCC on Monday, May 11, 2026, based on the findings. When the EFCC operative visited my office the next morning to collect the document, I told him that the response was ready in draft. I even showed him the draft, but told him that the document still needed approval from the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the hospital before it could be officially signed and released.
“He pretended to have accepted that. He left, but later later returned with another armed operative and informed me that I was under arrest. I asked him why. I was not the one that issued the medical report. My name is not on the medical report. The report was not issued from my unit.
“But he said I would get the answer when I get to their office. I then asked him to at least wait for my staff member who I sent on an errand before joining them. But they refused.
“They started pushing me. They dragged me out of the office. Then I began to cry while they were dragging me. They had warned me not to speak. They had taken my phone. My cry as they were dragging me, attracted the workers to the scene, who enquired what was going on, but because they ordered me not to speak, I couldn’t say anything. They had their guns.
The members of staff of the hospital initially blocked them from taking me away. They then made a call. After that I saw many masked and armed men came violently, broke the protector, threatening the people that were around and people ran away.
“They picked some staff that were still by me. they dragged me and other staff, five of us into their van downstairs. By that time they discovered that the gate of the hospital were locked. So, they drove towards the gate and packed and the commotion continued. We were inside the van.
“I was so emotionally and psychologically traumatised that I couldn’t even look out of the vehicle to see what was happening outside. But I know that teargas and live bullets were shot. That’s all I can say for now.”
Joyce Abdulmalik, of the Federal High Court, Abuja, heard on Wednesday, how Zenith Bank raised alarm over the huge transaction in one of its branches by Abubakar Malami, former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice (AGF-MoJ).
The bank said it immediately filed a Suspicious Transaction Report (STR) in respect to the transactions, during its appearance in the ongoing trial of Malami, his wife, and son over allegation of massive looting of funds belonging to the Federal Government during his tenure.
Mashelia Bata, a compliance officer with the bank, who appeared as witness in the case, where Malami, et al, are facing a 16-count charge bordering on alleged money laundering to the tune of N8.7 billion, to which they pleaded not guilty, gave the testimony while being questioned on the bank’s roles in the matter.
Details of the testimony conveyed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), stated how the compliance officer who was cross-examined by Adebayo Adedeji, lawyer to the defendants admitted that the deposits in the account statements complied with the guidelines of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Arguments had stretched when Adedeji, opposed Jibrin Okutepa (SAN), lawyer to the EFCC, who had asked the witness to explain the meaning of a suspicious transaction report, stressing that there was no ambiguity in the term.
However, Okutepa, in response, maintained that section 215(3) of the Evidence Act did not preclude him from re-examining the witness while urging the court to allow the question for proper explanation.
After Abdulmalik, agreed and overruled Adedeji, the witness told the court that banks were required to alert the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) about fund deposits coming in a repetitive pattern, adding: “Any deposition of funds seen in a pattern or repetitive, you must escalate it to the NFIU.”
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