The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has appealed not to be judged by its poor showing in last month’s by-elections, insisting the contests came too soon after its leadership transition.
ADC spokesman Bolaji Abdullahi said this on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Wednesday, September 10.
“We’ve explained it, we’ve issued a statement, we’ve talked about it several times. For us, the election happened less than a month after we came into the party.
“Most of the candidates, we didn’t even know them, and that’s why we said we cannot judge the ADC by that,” Abdullahi said.
“You’re just talking about us transitioning into establishing our real leadership at this time. So, the by-election that you talked about happened too early in terms of transition for the party.
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“So, we don’t want to be judged by the outcome of that election; other elections are coming, and we will be ready for those,” he added.
The by-elections, held on August 16 to fill vacant seats after the 2023 general election, produced no wins for the ADC.
INEC declared the All Progressives Congress victorious in 12 of the 16 seats, with the All Progressives Grand Alliance winning two in Anambra, the Peoples Democratic Party one in Oyo, and the New Nigeria Peoples Party one in Kano.
The ADC had earlier alleged that the by-elections were marred by violence, voter intimidation, ballot snatching, vote buying, and failures of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System. The APC dismissed these claims.