ADC leader criticizes party's presidential primary process

ADC leader Ibrahim Wala has supported the rejection of the party’s presidential primary election process.

PUNCH Online reported that presidential hopeful and former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, rejected the results of the primary election in a post on his X handle on Tuesday.

Amaechi said the process did not meet the promised standards of fairness and transparency.

In a Facebook post on Wednesday, Wala called the exercise a betrayal of the democratic values the party claims to represent.

"What we witnessed during the primary elections was not a democratic primary; it was a brazen, shameless auction that betrayed every value the ADC promised to uphold," he said.

Wala pointed out that the way the election was conducted showed the same issues the ADC often criticizes in the ruling All Progressives Congress.

"While ADC publicly criticizes the ruling APC and INEC for vote-buying and result-writing, the people sent to conduct our own primaries became the very monsters we swore to fight," he stated.

Wala also urged former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to distance himself from what he called "dirty, concocted primary election results."

He asked Atiku to reject the outcome, warning that accepting it would harm the ADC’s reputation for democratic reform.

He noted that young aspirants who saw the ADC as an alternative political party were treated unfairly during the primaries.

"The greatest casualties of this daylight robbery were our young, fresh political aspirants. They came into this process believing in the alternative platform of the ADC, only to end up as the poor, bruised victims of this sham process.

"How can we claim to offer a rescue mission for Nigeria when we are practicing the same impunity that brought the nation to its knees?" he asked.

He added that he stands with Amaechi in rejecting the primary results.

"On this sacred day of Eid, where we celebrate the triumph of faith and sincerity over greed, I join Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi in saying no to this charade. We will not accept results written in hotel rooms," Wala stated.

Meanwhile, the ADC has said that there is no current evidence to support claims of vote-buying or that the presidential primary was rigged or manipulated.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Tuesday, Abdullahi maintained that no conclusive evidence has emerged to back the claims made by any of the aspirants.

"We currently do not have sufficient evidence to either support or dismiss those claims. Since the results are still being collated, we have not observed any clear pattern that would substantiate such allegations.

"At this stage, we do not have enough information to conclusively say whether the allegations are true or false. We will have a clearer picture at the end of the process," he said.