The only African Democratic Congress (ADC) member in the House of Representatives, Hon. Leke Abejide has described what he termed as the attempted ‘forceful takeover’ of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party by the coalition of politicians, led by former Senate President David Mark, as illegal.
He also declared that the coalition’s attempt to unseat President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 election is ‘bound to collapse’.
Abejide, a second-term serving lawmaker who represents Yagba East, Yagba West and Mopamuro Federal Constituency of Kogi State, won his elections to the Green Chamber back-to-back in 2019 and 2023 on the platform of the ADC.
He was also the governorship flagbearer of the party in the 2023 Kogi State governorship election.
During a meeting of “critical stakeholders of the Leke Abejide political family” in Abuja at the weekend, the lawmaker dissociated himself from the coalition ADC and called on his supporters to join hands with him to ‘chase out marauders’ from the party.
Participants at the meeting cut across party lines, including ADC, All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from across the three senatorial districts in the state, and other parts of the country.
Abejide said that the meeting became imperative to clarify his status of party allegiance.
Amid recent calls on him by various groups of supporters in the state to join the APC and his sustained support for President Tinubu’s re-election in 2027, there had been speculations that he had defected to the ruling party or the PDP.
Abejide affirmed that, as the party’s lone and highest elective office holder, he remains a member of the ‘original ADC’ in the state and at the federal level, not in what he termed as the ‘Kangaroo Coalition ADC with the intent to seize the party’.
Abejide noted: ‘We shall join hands to chase out political marauders from People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP), and other parties that have formed a coalition (in ADC). We have been watching their characters since they claimed to have joined ADC as a coalition, it is clear now that they came with a notion to hijack the party structures, suppress original members of the party, and want to use the party to achieve their aims and objectives which is dead on arrival’.
He added: ‘Their recent activities in Kogi state are a mockery of democracy, those who came through the window and back doors are now claiming to be leaders of ADC in Kogi state. When we were nursing the party and maintaining the structures of the party both at the National level and in Kogi State, where were they?
‘It is evident that they destroyed their political parties and have come to ADC solely to achieve the same aim. We will not allow them to destroy ADC. On this premise, we shall seek legal actions by approaching the court of law, as the highest member of NEC to challenge the illegality of the so-called Interim National Working Committee’.
Noting that while the normal procedure demands that the NEC meets to consider the resignation of members of the National Working Committee and new ones elected and ratified, in this instance ‘there was nothing as such at all’.
Therefore, he said, ‘everything the so-called coalition has done is a nullity and thereby rejected by the original ADC members in Kogi state. There is going to be a new coalition of ADC, with other parties to support President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu for a second term in office.
For the naysayers, they are only digging their political graves, as you will all go into political oblivion after 2027. We remain the original members of the African Democratic Congress’.
A chieftain of APC, Chief John Fabola, said the meeting was a deliberate joint-action of supporters loyal to Abejide across party divides in Kogi state and beyond.
‘He has said he is still in the APC like a rock of gilbralter. Any steps he decides to take further he will not hesitate to let us know. This is what he has made clear to us and I believe we understand that. He is the landlord of ADC, not only in Yagba Federal Constituency, Kogi State but at the federal level. The aim of the coalition is to unseat President Bola Tinubu. We are here to ensure they did not succeed and they will not succeed’, he said.
