News
Obi’s exit a big blow, but not deadly – ADC *Ex-gov was overpampered
Everything was done to make Obi happy and to retain him in the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Bolaji Abdullahi, spokesman of the party, said on Monday, insisting that no other member got the type of attention the former governor of Anambra State received by the top echelon of the party.
Regretting that Obi, candidate of the Labour Party (LP), in the 2023 presidential election eventually rebuffed all the favours and turned his back on the party, Abdullahi, National Publicity Secretary of the hitherto coalition party, also saw Obi’s exit as a relief to enable members focus on ADC’s main objectives.
A guest of Prime Time, a public affairs programme on ARISE NEWS Television, he accused the former governor of harbouring a different agenda, adding that his joining the National Democratic Congress (NDC), was premeditated, and an option he took because of his inability to face the challenges of a coalition arrangement, which thrived on competition, negotiation and compromise.
Obi alongside Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, also former governor of Kano, who also contested the 2023 election on the platform of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), left the ADC to formally join the NDC, a decision, which seemed not to sit well with the leaders of the former arrangemen.
Bemoaning the development, the ADC spokesman, who explained that the action though hurtful, was not fatal stressed that Obi’s exit came as a result of his penchant for seeking a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to contest the presidency, which ADC could not offer him without fair contest.
Hear him: “The kind of party Peter Obi needed was the party he is now. A party that belongs to one man, that can say I guarantee you the ticket before he comes in.
“But in a political party like a coalition where a lot of negotiations need to happen, where you cannot take anybody for granted, where you have to make sure you keep everybody within the coalition even when they don’t get what they want… I don’t think Peter Obi can survive in such an environment, and that is why he’s gone to NDC because NDC can promise him the ticket.
“Personally, I’m not happy they left, but in a way, it is a bit of relief. Now we can really focus on doing what we need to do without being under the pressure cooker that they were trying to put us in. His departure is a setback but not a fatal blow. We are not going to go into a dogfight with them; they are not our enemy.”
Emphasising on practical steps the party took to achieve its objectives of increasing its appeal on Nigerians in order to unseat President Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) government, he said, Obi failed to align with such far-reaching moves because he had different set of interests.
Hear him: “We set up a manifesto committee that worked for about two to three months to develop a document that clearly outlined what we will do differently. You may invite His Excellency Peter Obi here and ask him, what is the ADC position on fuel subsidy? What is the ADC’s framework on security? He doesn’t know, because he’s never been interested.
“They are just waiting for the tickets to be handed to them. If you say you want to contest election, and you believe in changing the country, you should know what your party stands for. The ADC is a party with clear ideology and structure capable of offering Nigerians credible alternatives, but some political actors were more interested in using the party as a mere “special purpose vehicle” for their personal ambition.
“Everything that the government has thrown at the ADC, we have resisted. We have fought back and remained committed to our goal of rescuing Nigerians from the failure of this government. We have been fighting for democracy within a party that has given us the best chance to serve the Nigerian people. Even Peter Obi once said at a coalition meeting that if we present two candidates against Bola Ahmed Tinubu, we would be handing him victory in 2027. So, what has changed?”
“None of the aspirants or leaders was given as much consideration as Peter Obi. The office of the National Organising Secretary is the engine room of the party. It handles congresses, elections, and core operations. That office is occupied by his nominee,” he said.
Addressing claims by some of Obi’s supporters that the party was skewed in favour of a particular candidate, Abdullahi said such assertions were unfounded.
“We met with Peter Obi consistently. He attended coalition meetings regularly. He made it clear he would only join if the ticket was zoned. He took nearly a year to join the ADC and never raised concerns about bias within the party, because there was none,” he added.
Using a metaphor to illustrate his point, Abdullahi said: “When a woman wants to leave a marriage, she gives all kinds of reasons, including being suffocated by too much love. That is what we are seeing now.”
He emphasised that while individuals are free to associate with any political platform, those who choose to leave should avoid offering what he described as “flimsy excuses.”
Abdullahi also revealed that Obi’s defection appeared to have been in motion for some time, citing a meeting held two months ago in Kano involving Obi, Kwankwaso, and former Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson.
“After that meeting in Kano, I reached out to Governor Dickson and asked what had transpired. Kwankwaso had been considering joining the ADC, and suddenly, things changed. It raised questions about whether there were efforts to divide the opposition and create an advantage for the incumbent,” he said.
According to Abdullahi, Dickson indicated that the NDC remained an alternative platform open to interested politicians.
“What this suggests is that the defection of Peter Obi and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso was pre-planned. It even raises the question of whether Kwankwaso’s involvement in the ADC was a trojan horse at the onset,” he added.
The echoes of the drums rolled out to celebrate the rescue of the 44 teachers and students, kidnapped from some schools in Oyo State, after 56 days in the bush, would surely be disrupted abruptly, with the divergent echoes of a fresh abduction, this time coming from Kogi State.
Reports indicate that the gunmen, struck on Tuesday at the Government Secondary School, Odo-Ekina, in Dekina Local Government Area of the state, abducting four students, the school principal and a National Examinations Council (NECO) ad hoc staff member.
Authorities of the Kogi State Police Command, who immediately unleashed their operatives in hot pursuit of the abductors, said the attack occurred at about 5:25 p.m. while the students were writing their NECO examination.
Saliu Oyiza Afusat, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) and spokesman of the command, said a combined team of police personnel and other security agencies has launched a search-and-rescue operation following the incident.
Informing that one of the students was actually rescued immediately, she said efforts were ongoing to secure the release of the remaining victims and apprehend the attackers, adding that Naziru Bello Kankarofi, the state Commissioner of Police, alongside the Brigade Commander and the State Security Adviser to the Governor, Commodore Jerry Omodara (Rtd), were already on the way to the scene for an on-the-spot assessment.
Oil prices are expected to go down now with the announcement of Donald Trump, US President that he will no longer impose a 20 percent “safe passage” fee on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
The POTUS, hinged his reversal of the decision on the intervention from some Gulf countries, who pleaded with him not to toe the line due to the massive economic impact the decision would make on the region.
Indeed, oil prices had shot up immediately Trump announced the new levy on Monday while declaring the US ‘the guardians of the Hormuz strait,’ a measure which he said was to pay for the cost of guarding the volatile area in order keep supply of oil flowing.
Reports said that Gulf allies of the US worked frantically to get Trump on the phone in time to talk him out of the idea altogether, while a flurry of appeals came from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar.
In response, the POTUS, posting on his Truth Social platform, wrote: “Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States.”
Trump, who said the investments would be “MASSIVE but, at the same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future,” added that the deals would see factories, plants, and equipment pour into the US at “Historic levels.”
The Gulf nations have committed to invest trillions of dollars in the US, though it remains unclear how much of that they will actually spend over the next several years.
Meanwhile, the US continues to bomb Iran in what appears to be a resumption of active conflict between both countries, despite an ongoing roadmap to end the conflict.
Reports say operatives of the Osun State Police Command, and those of the Department of State Services (DSS) had tracking the trail of Adeniyi Adeyemi, controversial Director General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), for weeks, before he was eventually pulled out of his hole on Tuesday.
However, the duo, were said to have pulled back after failing to track him through his mobile phones, which he had reportedly switched off for about two days, making it difficult to locate him, leaving the stage for the members of the Police Intelligence Response Team (PI-RT) led by Moses Lohor, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP).
Lohor, said to have previously served as the Commander of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad of Osun State, and reported to have been involved in high-profile security operations and controversies, after taken over fielded his men to pick up signals from their well-oiled signal networks.
Regarded by many Osun residents as one of the key security officers who contributed significantly to the peace and stability enjoyed in Ilesa and other parts of the state during his tenure, he was said to have relied on his contacts before his transfer out of the state, said to have raised concerns from the public about the security situation he would be leaving behind.
His exit from the state was said to be hinged on an incident in 2024, in which he allegedly shot one Iyanda Alowonle, then Chairman of Osun State Motor Transport System, in the stomach at the police station in the state prompting an order for his arrest by then Inspector General of Police (IGP).
His effort was said to have paid off when he successfully tracked down the controversial PFIPC, boss, who was seen on Tuesday evening, in a shot video on social media undergoing interrogation, and eventually handed him over to Ibrahim Gotan, Commissioner of Police in the state.
The PUNCH quoted one of the sources as saying: “The arrest (of Adeyemi) took place on Tuesday morning by the IRT squad, who immediately moved him to Abuja. After he was arrested, he was taken to Ibadan and from there to Abuja.”
-
News4 days agoBREAKING: Mystery death! *Female student dies a day after arriving Umahi’s home!
-
News4 days agoDon’t jump to conclusion! *Umahi speaks on mysterious death of female students!
-
News3 weeks agoBREAKING: Court sentences Nigerien, two others to death over terrorism
-
News2 weeks agoBREAKING: EX-SSG mowed down by gunmen! *He resisted being kidnapped – driver
-
News4 weeks agoTwo hours after Igboho’s ‘red-eyes’ to ‘Fulani’ leaders, gunmen free kidnap victims!
-
News3 weeks agoAbductors of Oyo teachers panicking, freedom coming for victims soon!
-
News3 weeks agoChicagogate: Nigerians return to court! *Move to stop Tinubu from 2027 polls
-
News3 weeks agoObi to Tinubu: You’ve done enough harm, resign now! *President worse than Starmer