Politics

ADC crisis: Why Atiku, Amaechi, Obi, others should search for another party – Sumner Sambo

Political Editor at Arise News, Sumner Sambo, has advised key opposition figures, including Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi to consider adopting another political platform amid the freezing of David Mark’s leadership of the African Democratic Congress, ADC.

Sambo speaking on The Morning Show on Monday, said the ADC is currently weighed down by multiple legal and structural challenges that could hinder its viability as a coalition vehicle.

He cited ongoing disputes, including questions surrounding the legitimacy of the party’s leadership and separate legal cases challenging its executive structure, as significant risks for opposition stakeholders aligning with the party.

 Sambo added that although the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, may benefit from the opposition’s disarray, the problems within the ADC are largely self-inflicted.

He said: “I think if they have very good strategies, they will start thinking of looking for another political party to adopt at the moment because the problems are numerous.

Don’t forget, just last week, I had a one-on-one with one of those who have been traveling with the ADC very well.

“He actually told me that, look, apart from all these issues that we’re talking with Nafi Bala Gombe, there’s also another case which actually claims that even Ralph Nwosu was an illegal or illegitimate executive. And so the case is there separately from this.

“I would have thought that they had strategies that took a look at all of this before getting into the ADC. But I understand the appeal of the ADC because of the alphabetical order.

Don’t forget, when the APC was being formed in 2013 that was the same thing that they did. They look for a political party that will lift the name of the party up so that the PDP name will be under.

“I wouldn’t advise that they should go ahead with the ADC right now, because the ADC is entangled with so much problems, and it could be a challenge, and it is not the fault of the APC.

“Let’s be very frank and fair. The APC is harvesting from this challenge, but also the ADC leaders knew some of this. And if you listened to Mallam Nasir El-Rufai when he appeared here on the Arise News during the formation, he said that they already had another party.

I heard that they’ve been trying to approach the Nigerian Democratic Congress owned by Seriake Dickson.

“They should also be very careful, because I also heard from other people saying that these other courts where the new registered parties were registered by an act of court, and so if they do approach some of those parties, somebody may go back and challenge or appeal some of those cases that led to the registration of these parties by INEC.

But is this how our quality is supposed to be? No, it is interesting that you know.”