The crisis within the African Democratic Congress intensified on Wednesday, April 15, as Dumebi Kachikwu’s faction rejected the outcome of the party’s recent national convention in Abuja, citing a subsisting court order.
Addressing journalists in the capital, Kachikwu argued that the convention held on Tuesday lacked legal backing.
He maintained that organisers proceeded despite a Federal High Court directive issued on April 14, which instructed all parties to maintain the status quo pending the resolution of a suit filed by ADC state chairmen against former Senate President David Mark and others.
He said, “Yesterday, April 14, a Federal High Court in Abuja issued an order in the matter between the state chairmen of the ADC and the David Mark-led gang. The order said maintain status quo ante bellum.
This means no congresses or conventions until the matter before the court is adjudicated.
“Despite this order, the nation witnessed these desperate politicians hold a convention in the name of the African Democratic Congress, knowing that it had no locus before the law.
Can men who continue to flout court orders mean well for the ADC or Nigeria? The simple answer is no.”
Kachikwu further dismissed the gathering as lacking substance, accusing participants of focusing on criticism rather than policy direction.
READ ALSO: ADC Crisis: Kachikwu-Led Faction Rejects Mark, Bala, Plans New Convention
He said, “They have one agenda and one agenda only, and that is to instigate a complete breakdown of law and order in the country through political gangsterism.
Their mission statement is that if we can’t have it, no one else can.
“What we all witnessed yesterday was a blame game show where they all tried to outdo each other on who had the harshest words for President Tinubu and the APC government.
Nowhere in that whole show of shame did you hear any of them offer one suggestion on what they would do better or differently. Isn’t the job of the opposition to counter arguments and proposals?
“These political merchants are not only clueless but also bereft of ideas. The same way the Pharisees gathered a mob to say give us Barabbas is the way they gathered a mob in 2015 to say, ” Give us Buhari.
We got Buhari, and for eight years we witnessed a complete grounding of our economy and way of life,” he lamented.
The ADC remains split into rival factions, with leaders including David Mark, Nafiu Bala Gombe, Dumebi Kachikwu, and Kingsley Ogga each asserting control.
Meanwhile, the disputed convention ratified a new National Working Committee and revised party documents, although Kachikwu’s camp insists those decisions remain invalid until the court delivers its verdict.