The crisis rocking the African Democratic Congress took a dramatic turn on Tuesday as state chairmen of the party condemned what they called an \u201corchestrated political coup\u201d by a coalition led by former Senate President, Senator David Mark.
In a statement jointly signed by the forum leader, Elias Adokwu and Publicity Secretary, Godwin Alaku, and titled \u201cRejecting the Political Junta by Defending ADC and Nigeria\u2019s Democracy Against Subversion,\u201d the chairmen described the development as a \u201cblatant and reckless subversion\u201d of both the party and Nigeria\u2019s democratic norms.
Among their grievances, the chairmen accused the coalition of plotting an unconstitutional hijack of the ADC through \u201cmanipulation and backdoor dealings.\u201d
They said, \u201cWe unequivocally condemn in the strongest terms this desperate power grab, which represents not only an aberration of democratic norms but also a grave assault on our collective political values as a nation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dismissing the move as a mere disguise for selfish ambition, the ADC chairmen warned that it was not a realignment of political ideology but a \u201ccivilian junta\u201d attempting to seize control outside legal and democratic processes.
They further described the attempted takeover as an \u201cinsult to all those who believe in and have laboured for democratic governance in Nigeria.\u201d
The aggrieved politicians accused the coalition of working to fracture the democratic process through \u201cselfish ambition and extra-party inducements.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The statement, however, reaffirmed the party\u2019s commitment to \u201cdemocratic principles, the rule of law, ideological clarity, and peaceful political engagement,\u201d stressing that the ADC would never be a platform for \u201cpolitical mercenaries or ideological impostors.\u201d
They also challenged the coalition to reveal their true electoral worth, questioning their \u201celectoral value or ideological clarity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ADC is not for sale, not for hijack, and certainly not a dumping ground for discredited power brokers,\u201d the chairmen declared.
Similarly, the chairmen urged the Independent National Electoral Commission to reject any attempt to legitimise what they termed an \u201cillegitimate junta.\u201d
They also called on the Nigerian public and civil society to resist \u201ccreeping authoritarianism\u201d and demanded that law enforcement agencies investigate the unlawful bid to destabilise the party.
\u201cWe, the legitimate custodians of the ADC structure across all states of the federation, reject this illegitimate junta.
\u201cWe consider it our patriotic duty to defend the soul of the ADC and protect the sanctity of democratic structures in Nigeria,\u201d the statement concluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Responding, the Interim National Publicity Secretary of the ADC, Bolaji Abdullahi, said the party was tired of responding to non-existent issues.
He said, \u201cHow long shall we continue to respond to non-existent issues? Who are the members of this Forum of State Party Chairmen?
\u201cLook, Nigerians should not allow themselves to be distracted from the real issues that face us as a people.
\u201cLet us not waste our time on a gathering of a few people who are seeing that there is money to pick us from what they are doing. There is no issue that we have to respond to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The crisis rocking the African Democratic Congress took a dramatic turn on Tuesday as state chairmen of the party condemned what they called an \u201corchestrated political coup\u201d by a coalition led by former Senate President, Senator David Mark. In a statement jointly signed by the forum leader, Elias Adokwu and Publicity Secretary, Godwin Alaku, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-naija-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/images-47.jpeg?fit=726%2C423&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15789"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15792,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15789\/revisions\/15792"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}