ADC-PCC Condemns APC Campaign Council Inauguration, Alleges Threat To Multiparty Democracy

The African Democratic Congress Presidential Campaign Council (ADC-PCC) has condemned the inauguration of the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council in Abuja, alleging that the ruling party is working towards establishing a one-party state in Nigeria.

The ADC-PCC Director of Media and Publicity, Kola Ologbondiyan, made the allegation on Wednesday while reacting to the inauguration of the APC campaign council.

Ologbondiyan accused the ruling party of undermining multiparty democracy by allegedly pressuring opposition governors to align with the APC or participate in its presidential campaign council despite remaining members of their respective parties.

He described the development as an attempt to weaken opposition forces and consolidate political power.

“What we are witnessing is not politics but political abduction. You cannot claim to be a democrat while using state power to force opposition governors into your party and then drafting them into your campaign council. This is political banditry,” he said.

The ADC-PCC spokesman further alleged that key national institutions, security agencies and the judiciary were being used to undermine opposition parties and advance the ruling party’s political interests.

He called on Nigerians to resist what he described as an emerging political order driven by the desire to retain power at the expense of citizens’ welfare.

According to Ologbondiyan, the country’s political leadership had failed to adequately address the economic hardship, hunger and insecurity confronting millions of Nigerians.

“These particular sets of leaders don’t care about the current conditions of the people but how best to remain in power at a time when average Nigerians find it difficult to eat and be secure,” he said.

He urged Nigerians to oppose what he characterised as the growing intolerance of dissenting voices and the weakening of democratic institutions.

“Never in our democratic journey have we witnessed this level of intolerance and desperation. The APC government has weaponised poverty, hunger and insecurity to subjugate Nigerians and cripple the opposition. This is not the democracy for which Chief M.K.O. Abiola and other martyrs paid the supreme price,” he stated.

The ADC-PCC spokesman also expressed concern over what he described as the harassment of opposition figures and the use of public institutions for partisan political purposes.

ADC-PCC Backs Atiku-Amaechi Ticket

Ologbondiyan maintained that the presidential ticket of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and former Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi offered an alternative for Nigerians seeking changes in the country’s political and economic direction.

He described Atiku as an experienced politician with the national reach and capacity to unite the country and restore public confidence in democratic institutions.

“Atiku Abubakar is a democrat to the core. He has the national spread, the capacity and the will to reunite Nigeria and restore our battered democracy, which the APC has destroyed.

“The fate of Nigeria’s democracy rests on him to save it from total collapse,” he declared.

The ADC-PCC subsequently called on Nigerians, media organisations, civil society groups and the international community to support efforts to protect multiparty democracy and oppose what it described as the ruling party’s anti-democratic agenda.

The allegations were made by the ADC Presidential Campaign Council in response to the APC campaign council’s inauguration. The statement did not include a response from the APC to the accusations.