Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of engineering all the political crises in the opposition.
He stated this in his acceptance speech shortly after he was declared the winner of the ADC presidential primary.
PrimeTimes Nigeria reports that Atiku polled 1,846,370 votes to defeat his other challengers and emerge as the ADC presidential candidate for the 2027 elections.
During his acceptance speech, the presidential candidate lamented that opposition figures, such as the former governor of Kaduna State, are continually being harassed.
He said, “As I speak, virtually all opposition political parties in the country have a leadership crisis engineered by the APC government, the INEC and elements in the judiciary. And opposition figures continue to be harassed and intimidated, including those languishing in detention, such as Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, who distinguished himself as a public servant, including as a Minister and two-term Governor of Kaduna State.
“He has been in detention for three months despite court orders granting him bail. He has been denied the right to celebrate two important religious holidays with his family, in addition to being denied the opportunity to be by his mother’s side as she took her last breath. All because he is a leading opposition figure! This kind of cruelty must stop.
“The government continues to harass, intimidate and coerce opposition politicians to join the APC using the security agencies as well as the agencies which were set up by a previous government to fight corruption. Under this government, once a person joins the APC, the harassment ceases, and the charges against them magically disappear. This abuse of power must stop.
“Great care was taken to ensure that due diligence was done in the process of forming this coalition. Yet the government and the INEC continue to undermine it, even trying to deregister it. Let me warn that any further attempt to interfere in the affairs of the party by the Presidency, INEC and judiciary will be fiercely resisted. Enough is enough.”