African Democratic Congress (ADC), past chairman, Ralph Nwosu doubles down on allegations about attempted inducement, insisting, efforts by the government to scuttle opposition shall fail.
He vowed that no offer or inducement from the Tinubu administration would deter the party from opposing efforts to turn Nigeria into a one party state.
Speaking on Arise TV Prime Time, Wednesday night, Mr Nwosu asserted, “And that is why we have audaciously, and we will continue that process, to audaciously oppose anything that will make Nigeria to become a one party system under APC. It happened in Lagos, it cannot happen nationally.”
Nwosu who is the founder and pioneer chairman of the ADC firmly asserted that the presidency under Bola Ahmed Tinubu had deployed various strategies to torpedo efforts of the coalition to adopt and retool the party.
He doubled down on his previous claim that the government made offers aimed at inducing him to decline coalition efforts to use ADC as the led opposition party.
Apart from financial inducements, he mentioned that agents of the Administration offered him ministerial slots.
Even though he would not mention names of those making the offers, he challenged a Presidential Spokesman, Daniel Bwala who called him out for making the claims.
“Bwala, I wish you would come out and say why Elias, Godwin and Mohammed, they are doing in big hotels, being protected by government, the people paid police.”
He continued: “They are still carrying the cards of ADC. But the government has used them to scuttle the things we’re doing.”
The saboteurs
Nwosu alleged that these individuals were being used to file court cases to halt the coalition’s progress.
“They have used them to go to court to say that they don’t agree with the things we’re doing. Therefore, it should be stopped. And they are being protected. We have pictures and we know where they are.”
“There are people in APC who feel that if we offer this, and they feel it’s too small, we just up it… But this time they failed,” Nwosu averred.
He alleged that some of these subterranean moves were also woven around Mr Dumebi Kachikwu, ADC presidential candidate in the 2023 general election.
He accused Kachikwu of receiving funds to derail the coalition. “He has been the number one agent that is collecting resources from anywhere and funding the process to derail what we are doing as far as consolidating our coalition is concerned.”
Affirming Kachikwu’s expulsion from the party from the party, Nwosu said, “We had ADL, which our NEC organised, and we recalled those people. And in our NEC yesterday, we pardoned them of everything. But Dumebi Kachikwu… we said for him, we don’t want him anymore.”
Sound leadership
Despite all the odds, Nwosu is optimistic that the party and the coalition of individuals and political parties aggregating under the ADC would wither the storm.
He mentioned one of the sources of his confidence as the choices they have made so far in their leadership recruitment exercise. “One of the biggest call that the coalition has made, choosing someone like David Mark and Governor Aregbesola, critical,” he enthused.
“We’re just praying that everything will continue going well.… all the ideas that the new leadership has will work out well moving on,” he concluded.
