The 2023 presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Dumebi Kachikwu, has claimed that former Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar, and other ‘retired’ political office holders are manipulating Peter Obi and the leadership of the party through fraudulent means.
He accused Atiku of orchestrating a calculated takeover of the party to advance his 2027 presidential ambition.
Speaking during a press conference in Abuja on Friday, Kachikwu alleged that Obi is being pressured to accept being Abubakar’s running mate, adding that his men have been strategically positioned within the party’s hierarchy nationwide to secure its control.
He said, despite professing an affinity with the South, the former vice-president does not believe any Southerner deserves the presidency.
He said, “I had warned that a group of mostly old former political officeholders were executing a carefully orchestrated agenda to take over the ADC to prosecute Atiku Abubakar’s presidential ambition come 2027.
“Today I have been proven right, as former governor Obi and his people now realise that this coalition is indeed a one-man power grab.
“Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, a man who claims affinity and friendship with the south, does not believe any southerner deserves to be president of Nigeria.
“Former Presidents Obasanjo and Jonathan are alive to attest to this uncomfortable truth. In their desperation to hijack the ADC, they deliberately perpetrated fraud, of which I now present evidence to you today.”
He also accused Atiku’s camp of spreading falsehoods to deepen regional divides, portraying President Bola Tinubu as hostile to the north and undermining southern presidential aspirants.
“Atiku Abubakar and a few northern elites who have for decades held political power but did nothing to alleviate the undereducation and attendant impoverishment in northern Nigeria for political purposes are at it again.
“They have armed the weapons of region, religion, tongue, tribe and poverty as they convince millions of poor northerners that a southern President Tinubu hates them and is the cause of their poverty,” he added.
Kachikwu also presented evidence of forgery involving signatures of ADC state chairmen on court documents, which were used to validate Ralph Nwosu’s disputed claim to the party’s chairmanship.
He condemned the appointment of former Senate President David Mark as ADC chairman, describing it as a “fraud perpetrated in broad daylight”.
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