- The ADC alleged secret meeting with top officials aims to intimidate and split its ranks for political advantage.
- Bolaji Abdullahi described efforts as “sabotage”, warning it endangers multiparty democracy in Nigeria.
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has warned President Bola Tinubu against suppressing opposition voices.
This is contained in statement by ADC’s interim national publicity secretary and national coalition spokesperson, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi.
Abdullahi said the president himself rose to power due to the tolerant political environment under former president, Goodluck Jonathan.
He accused some federal appointees of deliberately targeting opposition leaders in a bid to weaken Nigeria’s multiparty system.
The ADC urged the president to show leadership and rein in aides who threaten democratic norms.
“The president needs to prove that he is truly a democrat,” the statement reads.
“He must remind his men that if the Goodluck Jonathan administration had behaved this way, the APC would never have come to power in 2015, and he would not be president today.”
The ADC spokesperson claimed some former state chairmen and top executives from the north east and north west had been invited to a clandestine meeting.
“We have credible intelligence that this meeting is not for national security or peacebuilding,” Abdullahi said.
“Its goal is to intimidate, coerce, and possibly recruit these individuals into a scheme aimed at undermining the opposition. This is not politics. This is sabotage.”
He said the move was designed to create internal chaos, weaken the party’s leadership, and hinder the rise of a strong alternative to the APC.
The party described the effort to lure or threaten opposition figures as a “coordinated assault on Nigeria’s democracy.”
“This is how one-party states are born, through fear, coercion, and manipulation,” Abdullahi said.
He linked the development to the recent unveiling of the ADC-led opposition coalition that has unsettled the presidency.
“It is now obvious that the Tinubu administration, having lost public trust, is unable to face a united and credible opposition,” he said.
“Instead of addressing the country’s challenges, it has returned to the old playbook of destabilising rivals.”
The ADC accused the ruling party of dragging the country into dangerous political territory.
It vowed to resist what it called a desperate attempt to silence dissenting voices.
“This party belongs to every Nigerian who is tired of the lies, the hardship, and the manipulation,” it said.
“We will not allow a few desperate men to take the country backward, we will resist them through every democratic means available.”
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