The African Democratic Congress has slammed the ruling All Progressives Congress for claiming that “key ADC figures” would be received into the party next week.
According to the ADC, the boast is a clear proof that the ruling party is desperate to buy legitimacy through defections.
Over the weekend, APC’s national chairman, Professor Nentawe Yilwatda, had stated that the ruling party is the new bride, disclosing that several prominent members of the ADC will join the them next week.
This followed the defection of many more politicians from opposition party’s one of which is the Governor of Enugu state who defected from the PDP alongside others.
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.”
He added that many of the incoming members “have completed their medicals” and will be formally unveiled next week.
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.
“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,” the statement read.
The coalition party added” “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.”
It dared the ruling party to name the ’key’ individual it claimed were ready to be received.
“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.
