A faction of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) backed by its 2023 presidential candidate, Dumebi Kachikwu, has rejected the party’s recent national convention.
Speaking to newsmen in Abuja on Tuesday, Kachikwu stated the national convention was conducted in defiance of a subsisting court order and therefore lacks legal standing.
He cited a Federal High Court order issued on April 14, directing all parties to maintain the status quo pending the determination of the suit filed by ADC state chairmen against former Senate President David Mark and other coalition chieftains.
He described the conveners of the convention as “political merchants” bent on destabilising the country.
He said, “Yesterday, April 14, a Federal High Court in Abuja issued an order in the matter between the state chairmen of the ADC and the David Mark-led gang. The order said maintain status quo ante bellum. This means no congresses or conventions until the matter before the court is adjudicated.
“Despite this order, the nation witnessed these desperate politicians hold a convention in the name of the African Democratic Congress, knowing that it had no locus before the law. Can men who continue to flout court orders mean well for the ADC or Nigeria? The simple answer is no.”
The ADC chieftain dismissed the convention as a “blame game,” where opposition figures competed over criticism of President Bola Tinubu without offering policy alternatives.
He further stated that the group’s actions were a deliberate act to trigger disorder through what it described as “political gangsterism.”
“They have one agenda and one agenda only, and that is to instigate a complete breakdown of law and order in the country through political gangsterism. Their mission statement is that if we can’t have it, no one else can.
“What we all witnessed yesterday was a blame game show where they all tried to outdo each other on who had the harshest words for President Tinubu and the APC government. Nowhere in that whole show of shame did you hear any of them offer one suggestion on what they would do better or differently. Isn’t the job of the opposition to counter arguments and proposals?
“These political merchants are not only clueless but also bereft of ideas. The same way the Pharisees gathered a mob to say give us Barabbas is the way they gathered a mob in 2015 to say, ” Give us Buhari. We got Buhari, and for eight years we witnessed a complete grounding of our economy and way of life,” he lamented.