…says Nwosu lacks power to expel him from party
The 2023 presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Dumebi Kachikwu, has dismissed claims of his expulsion from the party, insisting that former national chairman Ralph Nwosu and his National Working Committee (NWC) lack the authority to remove him.
Speaking at a press conference in Abuja on Friday, Kachikwu declared he remains a bona fide member of the ADC and will vie for the party’s 2027 presidential ticket.
He described the newly inaugurated Senator David Mark-led interim National Executive Committee as an illegality orchestrated by a chairman whose tenure expired two years ago.
Kachikwu alleged that Nwosu and Mark’s faction forged the signatures of some state chairmen in a settlement agreement as part of a scheme to hijack the ADC’s structure in support of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s 2027 ambition.
He said the forgery matter has been reported to the relevant security agencies and accused the coalition of plotting a carefully planned takeover of the party ahead of the next general elections.
According to him, recent developments vindicate his earlier warnings about elderly former political office holders seeking to control the ADC for Atiku’s presidential bid.
“I also warned that Peter Obi and other presidential hopefuls in this coalition of geriatrics were being duped as Atiku’s men had been carefully positioned to take over the ADC party structure across the country.
“Today I have been proven right as former Governor Obi and his people now realize that this coalition is indeed a one-man power grab,” he said.
Kachikwu accused Atiku of having no belief in a southern presidency, saying, “Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, a man who claims affinity and friendship with the south does not believe any southerner deserves to be president of Nigeria. Former Presidents Obasanjo and Jonathan are alive to attest to this uncomfortable truth.”
For emphasis, he alleged fraud in a recent legal settlement involving the ADC, claiming that the signatures of some state chairmen were forged to secure favourable terms in court.
“To use the ADC they needed to free it of all legal encumbrances such as those challenging Ralph Nwosu’s fraudulent claim to the chairmanship of the party and so they forged signatures of some of the chairmen who were not interested in the sale of the party and presented it to the court as terms of settlement which the Court of Appeal adopted as judgement,” Kachikwu stated, while displaying documents and signature specimens to journalists.
He confirmed that allegations of forgery relating to recent attempts to seize control of the party are already before the authorities.
“It is something that will be prosecuted by the appropriate law enforcement authorities. Today, we have presented our position on this matter before the appropriate authorities, and it is up to them to take it up.”
The former ADC candidate also dismissed the recent inauguration of former Senate President David Mark as the new chairman of the party, saying, “We all watched almost two months ago the comedic performance of Ralph Nwosu as he anointed David Mark as chairman of the ADC and at the same time presented him with a membership card of our party.
“I again warned Nigerians that this was fraud being perpetrated in broad daylight as Nwosu had no legal mandate to anoint or appoint a chairman for our party,” he said.
Kachikwu insisted the developments were part of a wider plan to influence the 2027 polls along ethnic and religious lines.
“Atiku Abubakar and a few northern elites who have for decades held political power but did nothing to alleviate the undereducation and attendant impoverishment in northern Nigeria for political purposes are at it again.
“They have armed the weapons of region, religion, tongue, tribe and poverty as they convince millions of poor Northerners that a southern President Tinubu hates them and is the cause of their poverty,” he alleged.
He claimed that Peter Obi had been told in very clear terms that he would never get northern votes as an Igbo man and should accept to be Atiku’s running mate, adding that former President Jonathan was also being drafted into the race to weaken the South.
“Meritocracy, which can only thrive when ceteris paribus is in play, has been thrown out of the door because of a truth, ceteris paribus doesn’t exist in the Nigerian ecosystem.
“Sadly, I am now here before you championing the cause of a southern presidency, a notion that before now was totally against all I believed in. Nigeria has indeed happened to me,” he said.
On the claim that former ADC chairman Ralph Nwosu expelled him from the party, the presidential candidate dismissed the move as baseless and illegal.
“Two years ago, before I ran for the elections, the same person came and said that I was expelled from the party. I represented the party in the elections. We all saw that,” he said.
“The same person, who two Federal High Courts in Nigeria pronounced is not chairman of the party said to me that he expelled me from the party. I was a recognized flag bearer of the party. I am still a member of the party.”
“A man who is not chairman of the party, who has no legal basis, cannot say I’ve been expelled from the party. Just like someone saying, I am no longer a Nigerian. I am a Nigerian today, yesterday, and tomorrow. I am a member of ADC today, yesterday, and tomorrow.”
Despite internal turbulence, he made it clear that he intends to re-contest the party’s presidential ticket.
“There’s absolutely nothing, no power, that will stop me from contesting in the ADC primaries next year. I assure you that the people who have hijacked our party realize that they brought bad luck to us.”
On whether he has a plan B in case he fails to clinch the ADC ticket, he said:
“As I speak to you in different press briefings, you hear them referring to ADA and other alternatives that they have a plan B with. They do indeed have a plan B because they know that they have it contained within the ADC. All they are doing is making our party popular across the country.”
“We have ADC branding all over the country and we benefit from this. I assure you that in the next election, when people see the ADC logo, people will recognize the ADC logo and we will benefit from it.”
He claimed the party has lacked legitimate national leadership for two years.
“ADC, as of today, is presented with a peculiar situation. For the last two years, we haven’t had a chairman because the tenure of Ralph Nwosu expired two years ago, and since then, we’ve been unable to have a convention to produce a new NWC. This was the matter we presented before the courts. The courts upheld what was presented to them. They agreed with us.”
“The court had given us twice and adjourned until October after the initial break. And that’s when the next sitting will go. I don’t recognize him as the party chairman. He’s not the party chairman and I don’t need to discuss with him. My discussion is with our party people across the country.”
On who can legitimately convene a national convention, he said the party must now invoke a principle similar to the Doctrine of Necessity.
“Our situation is indeed very peculiar. According to what happened when late President Yar’Adua was not in the country, was very ill, and we invoked the Doctrine of Necessity to swear in the President, my party seeks such a doctrine of necessity to ensure that we keep the hope and dreams of our party alive.
“Our party must not perish under the current onslaught by brutal demons across the continent,” he added.
He also emphasized that he was waiting for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to make an official move on the status of the party’s National Executive Council since the tenure of the Nwosu-led NEC expired two years ago and the party has been unable to convoke a national convention since then to replace them
Furthermore, he said he is also exploring legal options to challenge the legitimacy of the Mark-led NEC.
He urged Nigerians to resist what he described as an inequitable political agenda, saying, “We don’t burn our houses because we want to kill rats and cockroaches; sometimes we just need to make our houses clean so that rats and cockroaches leave on their own.
“My earnest prayer is that Nigeria will soon work for every one of us”.
