The African Democratic Congress has slammed the claim by the All Progressives Congress that “key ADC figures” would be received into the ruling party next week.
ADC described the boast as further proof of a ruling party increasingly desperate to buy legitimacy through defections.
APC’s national chairman, Professor Nentawe Yilwatda, had over the weekend described the ruling party as the new bride, disclosing that several prominent members of the ADC will join the ruling party next week.
He said this amid a recent wave of new entrants joining the party from opposition parties.
The Governor of Enugu State, Peter Mbah, recently joined the party, while Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State is reportedly set to formalise his defection soon.
Speaking during a meeting with APC stakeholders in Jos, Plateau State, Yilwatda said, “Next week, I will be receiving some notable figures from the ADC. Some of those who had earlier defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ADC are now returning to the APC.”
The APC chairman added that many of the incoming members “have completed their medicals” and will be formally unveiled next week.
But reacting in a statement issued on Sunday through its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, ADC said the announcement only reflected a deep realisation by APC that it cannot be saved despite governors’ defections.
“This statement underscores a deep realisation by the ruling party that it cannot be saved even if all the governors in Nigeria defected to the ruling party,” the statement read.
“This is why, even with all the governors and senators they have been bragging about, the APC is still desperate for ADC members.
“The truth remains that the APC realises that it has become the most hated party in Nigeria, and no amount of defections can save the party from Nigerians whose lives and livelihoods the ruling party has destroyed since it came to power.”
ADC said defections would not erase the public anger over alleged destruction of livelihoods since the APC came to power
“Like we have noted earlier, the recent gale of high-profile defections to the ruling party is properly understood by ordinary Nigerians as a gang-up against the people by a ruling elite who have left the people behind in abject poverty and are only interested in self-preservation even as their people wallow in misery.”
The party questioned why the ruling party would make shadowy references to unnamed members and challenged it to name the alleged “key” figures.
“We wonder if the APC has run out of governors to seduce, that it has now turned to shadowy references to unnamed ADC members?
“If these individuals are so ‘key’, let the chairman of the hated party mention their names.
“There is nothing new in the game that the APC is playing. It is the same ruinous game that the PDP played at the height of its powers.”
The party reiterated its determination to be a credible opposition force ahead of the 2027 elections.
“The APC will also learn the bitter lesson that real democratic power lies with the people and not a few power merchants,” it stated.
PUNCH.
