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BREAKING: INEC can’t stop us – ADC *Vows to go ahead with congresses
The African Democratic Congress (ADC), on Thursday, vowed to go ahead with its national congresses and convention scheduled for this month, regardless the de-recognition of the leadership of the David Mark leadership that has been conducting its affairs since last year.
Bolaji Abdullahi, its spokesman, said the party had before now notified the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that its congresses would commence on April 9, saying there was no question of backing down.
A guest of The Morning Show, a breakfast programme on ARISE NEWS Television, the ADC spokesman, made the declaration against the backdrop of the commission’s decision to de-recognise the Mark leadership.
INEC, in a statement, on Wednesday, signed by Mohammed Kudu, Commissioner, Information and Voter Education, had explained that based on the review of the decision of the Court of Appeal judgment on March 12 this year regarding the case, brought by Rafiu Bala Gombe, claiming to be the authentic leader, it had decided not to deal with either side of the factions.
The appellate court had ordered the party to maintain the status quo ante belum pending the decision of the Federal High Court, a decision the commission interpreted as not having any further dealings with the two parties, leading to the removal of the names of David Mark and Rauf Aregbesola as National Chairman and Secretary, respectively from its portal.
But Abdullahi, told his host on Thursday that the commission deliberately misinterpreted the appellate court’s order as a way of achieving a pre-determined goal of ensuring that President Bola Tinubu had no challenger in the 2027 election.
Maintaining the earlier position of the party that Gombe had resigned as an executive of the party in May last year, he said he had no locus to take the party to court and therefore could not be regarded as a faction.
He said: “The most important point today is that all this is part of an orchestration of the ruling party to distabilise the opposition. And it is very clear. Why is all these escalating few days after receiving Rabiu Kwankwaso in our party. We all know what is going on.
“We don’t have an internal problem. The problem we have is the problem orchestrated by the ruling party. The issue is that today, INEC has been bamboozled, INEC has been intimidated, INEC has succumbed to intimidation and they are determined to coronate President Bola Tinubu.
“As at today, we don’t trust INEC. INEC has shown that it is biased and that it is partisan and we’re going to respond appropriately. They said they’re not going to monitor or our congresses.
“One thing we are forgetting is that Ekiti election is coming, Osun election is coming. By derecognising the ADC, you are rendering it impossible to participate in those elections.
“INEC brought a timeline. It’s difficult to meet. We’ve served them a 21-day notice that our congresses start on April 9th. Now, by truncating the leadership of the ADC, they’re also disrupting the process.
“So, you can see where all this is going. If those processes are not completed, we’ll not be in a position to go to election in 2027. That’s why I say it’s a coronation process that they’re planning. When we keep saying that there is a plan to make President Bola Tinubu the only candidate on the ballot in 2027, people think we’re being hysteric. They think we are just bandying conspiracy theories.
“All this points to INEC trying to create a chaos. Now, asking people to go and vote is difficult enough. Now asking every single person that has a voter’s card to go to their polling units to revalidate those cards few months to the election is plain anarchy.
“It is sounding uncomfortably familiar. It is only that the democratic contest is what is making it look strange. If we are in a military rule, we can understand it. But we have found ourselves in a situation where everything is being done to ensure that the election in 2027 is a fair accompli and that Nigerians will be left with no option or no choice. But we have seen how this ended in the past.
“So, we’re saying, we’ll go ahead with our congresses. We had given INEC the notice, they had accepted the notice. So, whether they come or not, we’ll continue with our congresses, we’ll continue with our convention.”
Maintaining that INEC had no basis to toe the line it had decided, he argued that Nafiu Gombe, was being sponsored to disrupt the process, tracing the various developments that rendered his claim to the leadership of the party a non-issue.
His words: “Let me answer the fundamental question that as at the time the coalition was joining the ADC, Nafiu Gombe, was an official of the ADC. The answer is no! He resigned his position, May 17 as one of the six Deputy Chairmen, and INEC was duly notified.
“On August 12, 2025, INEC received a notice. So, INEC knows that as at May, 2025, Nafiu Gombe was no longer an official of the African Democratic Congress. But that is a different matter.
“But the most important point is that the Court of Appeal made a ruling and the summary of the consequential part of the ruling is that status quo ante belum be maintained. Now, this is the crux of the matter. Nafiu Gombe’s lawyers are interpreting it to mean the state of things before he went to court on September 2nd.
“But this is not the correct representation of what happened. On July 29th ADC had a NEC meeting in Abuja, attended by INEC. And in that NEC meeting, one of the resolutions was dissolution the National Working Committee. It was on the basis of that that INEC recognised David Mark and Rauf Aregbesola and uploaded it on its website.
“Now if the Court of Appeal is say go back to the status quo, Nafiu Gombe went to court on September 2nd. This NEC meeting happened on 29th of July and he went to court on second of September, INEC is now saying, our recognition of David Mark came on the 9th of September. That’s after he had gone to court.
“But that is an administrative issue. Whether you recognised it in 2026 or 2025 does not matter. The action was taken on July 29th and concluded. INEC knew about it and it was on that basis that INEC acted.
“To say that status quo ante belum was on the 9th of September is dubious and it is contrary to what the Court of Appeal ruled. Now let us even assume that we go back to the status quo before even David Mark, at the time NEC took the decision, ADC had leadership. So, if we must go further back, it means that Ralph Nwosu is the Chairman of ADC.
“So, the court would not have envisaged a situation where ADC, according to INEC did not have a leadership. What INEC has done effectively is to violate the directives of the appeal court. And that is criminal. INEC today is behaving like a criminal organisation.
For those believing that President Bola Tinubu’s exclusion of Humphrey Nwosu, the late Chairman of the defunct National Electoral Commission (NEC), was an error that would be corrected subsequently, their expectation came to naught on Friday, with his non-recognition once again.
In a surprise outing, the President failed once again to name the late Professor of Political Science as one of the Nigerians honoured, on the day Nigerians would be celebrating this year’s anniversary of June 12, designed to mark the historic 1993 presidential election, which has now been designated as Nigeria’s Democracy Day.
It was a day Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola (MKO), the candidate of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP), was elected President in a transition programme undertaken by the military government of then President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB).
Expectations are that because the Option A4 model used in achieving the outcome of the election, acknowledged as the freest and fairest election in Nigerian history, the late electoral commission’s boss, would feature prominently in the list of those to be honoured by the government.
But another list contained in the national broadcast by the President, suggested that the position of the treatment meted to the former NEC Chairman, reflected the thinking in the All Progressives Congress (APC), as the late President Muhammadu Buhari, Tinubu’s predecessor, under whom June 12 was given national recognition.
The list, populated mainly by names from the South West, which included both civilians and military personnel, did not capture the category of national honours to be bestowed on the recipients, as the government said further information would be released in due course.
Prominent among those recognized, was Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, a General and former Chief of Army Staff, Supreme Headquarters between 1976 and 1979, under the military regime of Olusegun Obasanjo, who died in Abakaliki Prison in 1997, where he was detained for allegedly participation in carrying out a coup against Sani Abacha, then Head of State.
Tinubu, said the completed Institute of Petroleum Studies, Kaduna, would now be known as General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua University of Geological Sciences and Engineering Technology, to honour the General, who later became a prominent figure in Nigerian politics, “for his vision of national partnership.”
Listing the other names, Tinubu said: “I am also pleased to announce national awards to the following Nigerians, who suffered persecution, endured indignities, exile, incarceration, and, at times, solitary confinement, so that we have democracy today.”
The recipients included: Ayoka Lawani, Tunde Fagbenle, Oladele Alake, Olatunji Bello, Louis Odion, Segun Babatope, Sam Omatseye, Ademola Osinubi, Bola Bolawole and the duo of Lade Bonuola, former Managing Director of The Guardian and Femi Kusa, former Editor of the Nigerian foremost newspaper.
Others, were: Debo Adeniran, Ayo Opadokun, Chief Ralph Obiora, Ose Osayande, Osa Director, Sylvester Odion-Akhaine, Arthur Nwankwo (Posthumous) and Osagie Obayuwana, all pro-democracy activists.
The list also included Joe Okei-Odumakin , Titus Mann, Joe Igbokwe, Richard Akinnola, Ben Charles-Obi (Posthumous), George Mbah Niran Malaolu, Ishola Williams, a retired Major-General, Femi Aborisade, Jenkins Alumona, Gbemiga Ogunleye, Muyiwa Adekeye, Babajide Kolade-Otitoju and Ike Okonta.
“We also recognise the soldier-democrats of the June 12 struggle: Major General MA Garba, Brigadier General Lawal Jaafaru Isa, Col Umar Farouk Ahmed; Col Sambo Dasuki;
Col Lawan Gwadabe; Brigadier Jonathan Ndam Temlong, Col Musa Shehu; Major General Chris Eze; Major General Harris Dzarma; Col Isa Jibrin; Maj. General Joseph Oshanupin; Col Olusegun Oloruntoba, Olugbede of Gbede Kingdom), Lieutenant Colonel Happy Kefas Bulus, Col J Okai;
Col Emmanuel Ndubueze; Lt Col Yakubu Muazu and Brigadier Yahaya Abubakar, the Current Etsu Nupe, who is already the holder of the CFR title.”
From Godswill Obot Akpabio, Senate President, came a definitive message to Nigerians on Friday – the future is bright, the road is clear and destination is assured under a strong, visionary and purposeful democratic leadership of President Bola Tinubu.
But he also raised a proviso – since democracy is participatory all citizens of the country, must get involved in providing the planks, which when nailed together, would enable the leaders fortify the platform for its growth, to enhance a robust, viable future.
These formed the fulcrum of his admonishment, as he joined other national leaders to celebrate Nigeria’s 27th anniversary of uninterrupted democracy, in which it not only broke the vice grip of military rule, but witnessed seven election circles to choose leaders at both national and other levels of government.
Akpabio, Chairman of the National Assembly, Nigeria’s lawmaking institution, was particular about the participation of the Nigerian youths in making his admonition come true, reminding them that they actually owned the future being fashioned today.
Conveying his message through Eseme Eyiboh, his spokesman the former Governor of Akwa Ibom State and former Minister of Niger Delta, also called on Nigerians to embrace unity, vigilance, and active participation in nation-building, commending them for showcasing resilience and support for democracy despite some low moments.
Noting that democratic experiment remained a testimony of endurance despite years of agitations, he said: “On behalf of the 10th National Assembly, I congratulate every Nigerian for the sustenance of democracy for close to three decades. Mistakes have been made in the course of this journey but we will surely get to the desired destination with your support.”
“Democracy should extend beyond the conduct of elections and be anchored on accountability, justice, compassion and service to the common good.”
Particularly for the Nigerian youths, he was emphatic about their active participation in the nation’s political process stressing that the younger generation forms the fulcrum of leadership succession.
Hear him: “As we commemorate June 12, I wish to encourage the youth not to sit on the fence but be active participants in the nation’s political activities. The youths constitute the fulcrum of those who will succeed us tomorrow.
“Let us therefore rededicate ourselves to the ideals of freedom, transparency and accountable government, social justice, and active citizen participation, especially the youths.”
The Senate President, also spoke the current parlous state of carnage in the country, appealing to Nigerians to unite with one another and cooperate with the government to tame “the monster that has befallen the nation.”
Assuring that Tinubu’s administration remained committed to ending the menace and securing the release of all persons in captivity, he said: “I urge every Nigerian to support the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in her efforts in fighting terrorism. We understand the pains you are going through but the government is not resting on its oars and hopefully we shall overcome this current challenge and all will be well with Nigeria.”
Seriake Dickson, National Leader of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), on Wednesday showcased Peter Obi, its presidential candidate in the 2027 election, but gave a proviso – his importance would not be at the expense of the party.
A guest on Prime Time, a public affairs programme on ARISE NEWS Television, the former Governor of Bayelsa State, now Senator representing West at the National Assembly, maintained that the belief in some quarters that Obi’s entrance into the party was a favour was completely misplaced.
Instead, he argued that the opposite was the case, as it was the party that was doing its candidates a favour by giving them the opportunity to contest elective positions on its platform in the 2027 elections, a gesture that ought to be returned.
Hear him: “Don’t make it look like anyone is doing NDC a favour. No one is. Rather, the NDC and I and my colleagues are doing people a favour by granting our platform. If you are genuinely supporting Peter Obi and you are disparaging me, the leader, or the platform itself. That is nonsensical.”
Stressing that NDC had demonstrated confidence in Obi by adopting Obi as its sole presidential candidate and selecting a vice-presidential candidate without internal disputes, he said it was enough to earn its leadership the gratitude it deserved.
He added: “Nobody paid shishi. So, if a presidential candidate didn’t pay shishi to be made the sole presidential candidate and sole vice-presidential candidate, that same party cannot be the one saying that small people are underprivileged.
“I could have run. There’s no one more qualified than me. There’s no one more qualified than me to run for presidential candidate. None. There is no crisis within the NDC. Peter Obi is a cherished member of our party. On our own, we have made him a presidential candidate. Sole presidential candidate. And that counts for something. We are working well together. There’s no crisis.”
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