Mr. Dumebi Kachikwu, the former African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, attacked former Vice President Atiku Abubakar Wednesday, claiming that he and other ADC coalition members were causing division within the party.
Additionally, he criticised the former vice president’s alleged desire to run on the ADC platform, claiming that Atiku does not support a southern president.
Speaking to reporters in Abuja, Kachikwu pleaded with the ADC coalition to refrain from giving Atiku the party’s platform for the 2027 presidential election. He said that the coalition members and the previous vice president should not be permitted to take over the party.
Join our WhatsApp community
The former ADC presidential candidate further claimed that some party state chairmen received offers of N20 million apiece in exchange for leaving their posts.
He said: “This is a man whose antecedents clearly show he doesn’t believe anyone from the southern part of Nigeria deserves being president.
“Former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has shown that he doesn’t believe any other section of the country should produce the next president except himself. Atiku almost truncated Chief Obasanjo’s government. He is using charlatans to deceive Peter Obi into running as his vice-presidential candidate.
“I challenge Atiku to say that the presidency belongs to the South. I will reiterate that the ADC is not for sale. As a member of the party, I have a stake and will not allow strangers to hijack it. The so-called coalition members are not ADC members; they came to cause upheavals in the party.
“The presidency is not—and will never be—the birthright of any one section of this country, no matter how much propaganda they spread.
“There is a lot of deliberate misinformation being peddled by these agents of destabilization masquerading as a political coalition. There’s a clear difference between a political coalition and a political gang.
Join our WhatsApp community
“The first has noble ideals, while the latter seeks power for personal gain. What we have here today is a gang, unable to survive outside political office, seeking to hijack the ADC as a means to revive their personal fortunes. They are truly on a rescue mission, but it is a mission to rescue themselves from the harsh economic realities they helped create for our nation.
“They accused me of being a paid spokesperson for President Tinubu. My response is this: It would be an honour to serve as a spokesperson for the president of the largest Black nation on earth, but unfortunately, that is not who I am.
“Political jobbers with no visible means of livelihood are always eager to tarnish others, but I remain unfazed.
“With the active support of their media cohorts, they now claim to be the ADC — but they are not. I can call myself the President of America until I’m blue in the face, but that doesn’t make it so.
“They are offering some state chairmen as much as N20 million to resign their positions, which clearly shows their intentions are not honourable.
“My question to this gang is: If you succeed in paying off all ADC party officials at the state and local government levels to resign, what next? Our constitution does not permit you to assume those offices. That is the plain and simple truth. Your money will get you nowhere in the ADC.
“If your rescue mission must be built on fraudulent misrepresentation, it only reveals your true character.
