The interim National Chairman of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), David Mark, has declared that the party has no preferred aspirant for its 2027 presidential ticket.
The party chairman assured that the candidate would emerge through an “absolutely transparent” process.
“The ADC has no preferred or favourite presidential aspirant, but has set out to first put out a platform that would be attractive and acceptable to majority of Nigerians.
“We are doing this because we do not want this great ship called Nigeria to sink, because if we do not rise up now, they will sink all of us,” he said.
Mark gave the assurances on Tuesday in Abuja, while addressing a delegation of ADC stakeholders from Kogi State.
According to him, all ADC members are equal joiners and equal owners of the party.
“I don’t own this party more than any of our members and I urge all members to prepare to show Nigerians that ADC is a different party.
“A different party that is ready to properly run democracy in our country. All Nigerians must come together and take ownership of the ADC,” he added.
He urged members to put their differences aside and work as a team, adding that, “we must bond together to build the party before we can talk about ambitions.”
He charged the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to stop attacking individuals but should rather concentrate on issues the ADC has raised concerning their policy failures.
“If they admitted that insecurity is bad and they promised Nigerians that they would improve on it but have made it worse, would Nigerians continue to support them? The answer is No.
“Let us continue to work to rebuild our nation and bring out her best in the overall interest of the future generations,” he said.
In a related development, the party accused the APC of deceiving Nigerians by using the names of non-ADC members to file a suit against its interim leadership.
It alleged that the names of the individuals used in filing the suit were neither in the ADC physical nor digital registers in Kogi or Nasarawa State.
“It smacks of desperation that a party elected to take charge of the lives of no fewer than 200 million people can engage in shopping for the names of its citizens in pursuit of Machiavellian politics,” the party said.
A group, under the aegis of the National Legal Support Group for ADC, has vowed to tackle any legal issues arising from the take over of the party by the Mark-led interim leadership.
The leader of the group, Mohammed Sheriff, said in Abuja on Tuesday that no fewer than 97 lawyers have indicated their preparedness to represent the party in court.
