A former governorship candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in Gombe State, Nafi’u Bala, has declared himself as the new national chairman of the party.
At a press briefing in Abuja on Wednesday night, Bala, who previously served as the ADC’s national deputy chairman, accused the faction led by former Senate President David Mark of violating the party’s constitution and unlawfully seizing control of its leadership.
Last month, several opposition politicians and top ADC members adopted the party as the new coalition platform for the 2027 elections.
Among those involved in the coalition are former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, ex-Senate President David Mark, former PDP chairman Uche Secondus, ex-governors Babangida Aliyu (Niger), Sam Egwu (Ebonyi), Aminu Tambuwal (Sokoto), and Liyel Imoke (Cross River). Others include former Kaduna governor Nasir el-Rufai, 2023 Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi, ex-Ministers Rauf Aregbesola and Rotimi Amaechi, former Sports Minister Solomon Dalung, ex-APC chairman Odigie Oyegun, and Bolaji Abdullahi.
On July 2, Ralph Nwosu, ADC’s founder and immediate past national chairman, announced the resignation of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) and endorsed David Mark as the head of an interim leadership.
Nwosu later claimed he was offered three ministerial slots to halt the transition of the party into a coalition platform for opposition parties.
However, not everyone within the party is on board with the coalition move. Some members argue that ADC should not be reduced to a private political vehicle for a select few.
Dumebi Kachikwu, the ADC’s 2023 presidential candidate, has also criticised the coalition adoption, expressing his disapproval of the alliance.
Bala vows to take legal action
Bala said genuine members of the ADC would challenge what he described as an illegitimate takeover.
“We wish to draw the attention of all members of our great party and Nigerians at large, to the ongoing acts of political hooliganism being perpetrated by some individuals who were hitherto entrusted with the leadership of the party,” he said.
“We are all living witnesses to the show of shame and acts of lawlessness being displayed by these unscrupulous leaders, who, without any qualm or sense of moral restraint, plunged our party into a needless crisis and leadership uncertainty.”
He condemned what he called the surrender of the party’s leadership to outsiders, saying, “The idea of mortgaging the future of our great party, by abdicating the constitutional duties and responsibilities of all elected officers of the party, to some powerful outsiders who never belong to the party, is condemnable.”
Describing recent developments as a “shoddily rehearsed political melodrama,” Bala accused unnamed individuals of collaborating with non-members to hijack party structures.
“This total surrender and capitulation is without any known precedent in our democratic journey to constitutional order,” he said. “We are therefore strongly resolved and collectively determined to challenge this affront and ensure that the party’s laid down rules and stipulated provisions are respected and strictly adhered to by all those who belong to it.”
He warned that failure to correct the situation would lead to legal action: “In case these individuals choose to ignore our urgent calls to obey our constitutional guidelines and thus remain very obdurate and recalcitrant in their aberrant behaviour, we shall proceed with gusto to challenge these gross acts of impunity in the courts and bring them to justice.”
He added, “It gives us enormous pain to inundate you with these scandalous happenings in our party, but we have been left with no other option to take in defence of our inalienable constitutional rights, as evident by the prevailing situation we now find ourselves in the party.”
According to him, no group of leaders has the authority to arbitrarily hand over party control to non-members.
“In the history of democracy all over the world, no party leader or any group of leaders have the power to arbitrarily transfer elected mandate or political authority to non-members who never belonged or contested for political office.”
Bala said the ADC’s constitution clearly outlines the procedure for succession and filling vacant offices, and based on that, he has stepped in as interim national chairman.
He urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to “urgently” recognise him as the party’s legitimate leader.
