The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has rejected the claim by the All Progressives Congress (APC) that some of its House of Assembly candidates from Jigawa, Plateau, Taraba and Zamfara States have defected to the ruling party.
The ADC described the claim as “wishful thinking” and accused the APC of parading individuals who are neither candidates nor leaders of the opposition party.
The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, made the position known in a statement issued on Monday.
Abdullahi said the APC could not simply assemble individuals at its secretariat, assign them ADC credentials and present them to Nigerians as defectors from the party.
“The APC cannot assemble random individuals at its secretariat, confer imaginary ADC credentials on them and then announce their defection,” he said.
He added, “While the APC Chairman is welcome to receive visitors, he should stop introducing them to Nigerians as people they are not. These people are not our candidates.”
The ADC also dismissed the APC’s claim that the alleged defectors were attracted by what the ruling party described as the administration’s “remarkable transformation” of Northern Nigeria.
According to the opposition party, the APC should focus on providing evidence of improvements in the living conditions of Nigerians rather than relying on photographs of alleged defectors.
“Having invented ADC credentials for its guests, the APC has supplied an equally imaginative account of its performance over the past few years,” Abdullahi said.
He questioned how the alleged defections and accompanying photographs would address the economic challenges facing Nigerians.
“The APC should explain how these fake photo-ops bring down food prices, protect Nigeria’s communities or help struggling families pay their bills,” he said.
“Nigerians are asking for evidence of better lives; the APC is manufacturing photographs and congratulating itself.”
The ADC challenged the APC to provide details of the alleged defectors’ identities, positions and constituencies, insisting that the ruling party should substantiate the credentials it claimed they held within the ADC.
“The APC should state the ADC offices these individuals supposedly held, the constituencies they represented as our candidates and when they held those positions,” Abdullahi said.
He added, “The APC should enjoy its photographs and spare Nigerians this unnecessary fiction.”