A chieftain of the opposition African Democratic Congress (ADC) in Kaduna state, Dr. Salihu Lukman has raised the alarm over a plot by some aspirants to allegedly hijack party structures against their perceived opponents.
Lukman in a statement issued Wednesday described the ‘madness’ of controlling structures of ADC as the biggest threat before the party ahead of the 2027 general elections
To this end, he appealed to the former Governor of Kaduna state, Nasir El-Rufai, Jaafaru Sani, Bashir Saidu and Senator Musa Bello to unite the party ahead of the 2027 general election.
Lukman noted: “Instead of working to build the party, we are setting ourselves to produce a party whose business will be limited to presenting candidates for elections.
“People with ambition to contest elections have become restless and want to dominate the process of developing the structures of the party to the exclusion of their opponents.”
Lukman lamented that for whatever reasons, some of them who want the ADC to be an equal opportunity party are being condemned.
He added: “Sadly, some of our leaders instead of providing fair leadership are taking side with strengthening aspiring candidates for 2027 elections across the state to the exclusion of others.
“I want to use the opportunity of this independence anniversary to appeal to all of us to stop this madness of trying to take over structures of ADC and control it to the exclusion of so-called opponents.
“If ADC is to emerge as a strong party capable of defeating the APC in Kaduna State, we must agree to work together. Anybody who is not ready to work as part of a united opposition in Kaduna State is consciously or unconsciously working for APC.
“I am making this strong appeal with a very deep feeling of disappointment that we are recklessly mismanaging an opportunity to provide the needed leadership to our people.”
“In particular, I want to appeal to Mal. Nasir El-Rufai, Mal. Jaafaru Sani and Alh. Bashir Saidu as opposition leaders in Kaduna State to please stop encouraging the madness of aspiring candidates seeking to take over structures of ADC to the exclusion of so-called opponents.”
Lukman said at an individual level, he had tried to talk to those he could talk to but unfortunately he has failed.
According to him, The fact that we have Sen. Musa Bello aggressively seeking to control structures of ADC in Zone 2 is a reflection of my failure. Largely because I am in recent times associated with Sen. Musa Bello, Sen. Lawal Adamu (Mr. La) has avoided all my request to meet him.
“I have met Mal. Jaafaru Sani on this matter. We have had some discussions with Mal. Nasir. Sincerely, I am saddened by the fact that we are not united and the perception is that I am part of the problem.
“As a citizen from Kaduna State, I am willing to make every necessary sacrifice to move our state forward. I have no ambition to contest the election. Without sounding immodest, I made every sacrifice to contribute to forming the coalition and negotiating the agreement with ADC.”