… says Dumebi Kachikwu long expelled from party
By Jude Opara, Abuja
A staunch member of the coalition that fused into the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Mallam Salihu Lukman, yesterday revealed that they did their due diligence before pitching their test with the party.
Lukman further revealed that the coalition is so structured in such a way that nobody would be handed the structure of irrespective of his or her status and interest in contesting the presidential ticket of the party ahead of the 2027 election.
Speaking while appearing on AIT popular programme, Jigsaw and monitored in Abuja, Lukman, a former National Vice Chairman (North Central) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), said contrary to insinuations that the coalition just hijacked the ADC without the buy in of most of the stakeholders, the coalition did its due diligence and found out that there was no inhibitions.
He said the coalition didn’t go into the arrangement (ADC) with their eyes closed, desperate to have a political party.
He explained that they took their time and negotiated with not just one individual, but with the whole leadership.
According to Lukman, there are plans to build the structures of the party in such a way that the party is strong enough and can regulate the conduct of everybody, not just aspiring candidates, but even elected representatives when they win office and assume political positions.
“What we are telling everybody in the coalition is that the structures of the party will not be handed over to aspiring candidates.
“We have to build the structures of the party in such a way that the party is strong enough and can regulate the conduct of everybody, not just aspiring candidates, but even elected representatives when they win office and assume positions.”
He equally spoke on how the coalition cleared all the legal crisis before the unveiling: “I can tell you that we opened a negotiation with a wide range of parties. And we went through processes including conducting legal due diligence on the status of both the leadership and if there are any pending litigation that are there. And in the process, we were able to also check with INEC and get all the substantive issues.
“I can tell you, some of the issues being raised in the public about some of the litigation, there are issues which, even by INEC record, if you go there, you’ll find out that they have been resolved long ago.
“ At a point, we even had to sit down with all the members, in fact more than once, all the members of the National Working Committee of ADC.
“So I want to make it very clear and if you check with INEC, you’ll find out that even the Dumebi Kachikwu, who came out to make noise, by the record, of INEC, based on the certified true copies of proceedings of organs, legitimate organs of the ADC, Dumebi Kachikwu and some others, I think about 15 of them, have been expelled from the party. I can’t remember exactly when. So, we didn’t go into this blindly.
“And we were very clear that we were in a very safe ground. And proceeding further, we are not supplanting the leadership of ADC. We have accepted to work with them as partners, they are stakeholders. And I’m sure in not too distant time from now, the interim leadership of the party led by Senator David Mark’s, and Aregbesola will release possible guideline to guide the position at the state level, And how the whole reorganization of the structures of the party will proceed.
