Cynthia Ezegwu
The National Working Committee of the Accord Party has rejected claims that its National Chairman, Maxwell Mgbudem, was suspended, describing the move by a splinter faction as “laughable” and orchestrated by “political jobbers seeking relevance.”
In a statement on Friday, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Joseph Omorogbe, said the purported vote of no confidence, announced at a stakeholders’ meeting in Keffi, Nasarawa State, was led by former presidential candidate Chris Imumolen, who the party insists “had long been expelled.”
Omorogbe called the suspension attempt “a joke taken too far,” adding that Imumolen “merely craved cheap publicity to mislead unsuspecting members of the public.” He reaffirmed that Mgbudem remains the authentic national chairman of Accord, duly recognised by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
“All members of the party are in one accord and will not be distracted by the activities of its expelled members and their sponsors, whose intention is to destabilise the party ahead of the 2027 general election,” Omorogbe said.
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The statement comes less than 24 hours after a faction of state chairmen from all 36 states met in Keffi and announced Mgbudem’s suspension over alleged anti-party activities, naming Imumolen as national chairman. The mainstream leadership, however, dismissed the claims as fabrications and cited court rulings, including a July 17, 2025, Federal High Court judgment by Justice Fatima A. Aliyu, which struck out a suit filed by Imumolen and others and affirmed Mgbudem’s leadership.
Accord accused unnamed political sponsors of attempting to destabilise the party ahead of the 2027 elections, but insisted that its structures remain intact and that there is “no leadership disagreement in Accord.”
The party reiterated that it has been “reorganised and repositioned as a formidable progressive mass movement” and urged Nigerians to disregard the faction’s activities, saying the Keffi meeting “has no place in the Accord constitution.”