₦airaland Forum

Minatouchiha:
Whoooaaaa!!! Listening to his music right now. RIP Legend.

Activist Aisha Yesufu has accused the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) of subverting the process for selecting the party’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT) senatorial candidate, saying she could not compromise her values in a process she described as unjust.

Yesufu made the allegation in a statement issued on Friday night, hours after announcing that the party would not be conducting primaries for the FCT Senate seat, effectively ending her bid for the ticket.

The activist had declared her intention to contest the race on May 6 after joining the NDC from the African Democratic Congress (ADC), saying her decision was inspired by the leadership experience she gained in her former party.

Her declaration came amid growing speculation that the party had already resolved to hand the FCT Senate ticket to another aspirant, Amanda Pam, who had been a member of the party before Yesufu joined.

Addressing supporters earlier on Friday, Yesufu urged them to remain calm and focus on the broader political objective ahead of the 2027 general election.

In a subsequent statement, however, she alleged that the process leading to the emergence of the party’s candidate was marred by injustice and violations of electoral guidelines.

“I understood what I was getting into. I knew that the quality of our politics has not yet risen to the occasion, that values-based candidates do not easily emerge by merit in a system built to resist them,” she said.

“But I made a decision going in: I would not compromise my values. I would stand for what is right. I did not leave advocacy to go into politics. I took advocacy into politics.”

Yesufu said she built her campaign on grassroots credibility and argued that the strength of her “SAY-Nation” movement altered the course of the party’s decision-making process.

According to her, the team became so formidable that the selection process “had to be taken out of the open and resolved through a clandestine affirmation behind closed doors.”

She further alleged that “what was billed as a primary was, in truth, a predetermined outcome dressed in procedural formalities”.

The activist claimed that the FCT senate primary process was repeatedly delayed, with venues changed at the last minute and party guidelines ignored.

“The delegate-based process was introduced to be conducted at a central location instead of direct primaries at Local Government headquarters,” she claimed.

“When the moment came, the contest was not decided by delegates in the open; it was affirmed in a closed room, away from the people whose voices it was supposed to reflect.”

She added that while the party may present the exercise as transparent, the events surrounding the process did not reflect fairness.

"The party may go on to release statements about the free and fair nature of the primary, but the facts that transpired, when weighed against conscience and the guidelines of the Electoral Act, do not reflect justice and fairness,” she said

Explaining why she did not immediately challenge the outcome, Yesufu said she preferred to learn from the experience rather than become entangled in a lengthy grievance process.

“I ran to win. But when the process was subverted, I made a choice: I would not exhaust myself in a grievance process designed to wear people down. I chose instead to extract every lesson this experience had to offer,” she said.

“I now understand the architecture of the system in ways no textbook, no punditry, no amount of outside observation could ever teach.

“That knowledge is worth more than any petition I could have filed. I leave this process with something far more valuable than a ticket; I leave with clarity

Yesufu stressed that her account was limited to her experience in the FCT Senate contest and should not be interpreted as a reflection of events in other states.

Despite her criticisms, she maintained confidence in the party’s broader political role ahead of the 2027 elections.

“Despite its shortcomings, the NDC remains the only party that has given the best presidential candidate in the 2027 electoral cycle a platform to run,” she said

The NDC had not issued an official response to the allegations as of the time of filing this report

The probe is the latest move in the department’s ceaseless, and somewhat strained, efforts to meet Trump’s demands to target his long-standing personal foes.

The Supreme Court has deferred its decision on whether to take up Trump’s appeal twelve times. The most recent deferral was made Wednesday morning.

Ogbujaja:
Why is Peter Obi giving you nightmares?

akingold2:
It is not only Peter Obi. All the opposition are not serious. The incident at Ogbomoso where babies were kidnapped is enough for the opposition to use to make APC lose if they were really serious. Something the opposition should keep hammering on it until the election they just kept quiet.

Kendollar696:
It's not like voting for obi will put food on his table...
Obi has his money...
If you like vote for APC again...
You will suffer..
No law, no order, insecurity, food scarcity, price hike, fuel hike ( increase trekking)
If you're carry your situation compare with dangote or obi children..
Na you go suffer las las..

If you don't have what it takes to leave this country, you better use your head..
Na people wey dey close to door fit do shakara..
You wey dey inside inside house, go feel the heat.

If the government get worse, Obi has what it takes to take all his families abroad while you, I mean you defending APC will chop grass...

Jeezuzpick:
What a way to prove that you didn't even read the post!
INEC just denied the information. They said it didn't come from them.
Are you expecting Obi to lose sleep over a mere fabrication from a political party?
All they are doing is simply preemptive rigging. We saw how they counted people during the sham they called "primaries" "1....2.....3.....10....17....100!

deebrain:
He obviously does not react to jokes .

The 12.9 million that was from 1, 2, 6, 1009, 24012, 109700, 2.5million, 3.6745million, 10.6million, 12.9million...

Haba.

He does not need to react. Even INEC is reacting. As a matter of fact, I will physically react to any maths teacher that will fail my children for wrong calculation from next month.

Omowale2023:
Sir, there's nothing obi can do, according to the laws, it's an internal matter and no matter the evidence, the court will strike it out as it lacks merit. Therefore if I have a thing that end Obi's career, I can't present it to the court because I am not a member of NDC and I didn't run for the presidential elections. It's well. So there's no need scrutinizing the process

FreeStuffsNG:
Before they start shouting rigging next year, they should remove the big log of iroko tree in their own eyes.

Since they already failed to convince their own card-carrying members to vote, they can not convince other Nigerians to vote for their flagbearers niyen.

They had just 1 job to do; give Nigerians credible opposition. They failed woefully at the job.

They are unserious elements.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has disowned membership figures of political parties released by the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Nentawe Yilwatda, saying the data did not emanate from the commission.

The Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Dayo Oketola, stated this on Tuesday while reacting to figures attributed to the APC chairman during an interview on ARISE News.

“Dear esteemed media colleagues, please note that this is certainly not from INEC. Thanks,” Oketola said in a message sent to journalists.

Yilwatda had claimed during the interview that the APC has 12.9 million verified registered members, while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has 2.4 million members, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) 1.6 million, Labour Party (LP) 1.3 million, and the National Democratic Coalition (NDC) 700,000 members.

Since Yilwatda made the claims during the interview, the figures have been widely circulated across social media platforms with many Nigerians attributing the data to INEC.

The APC national chairman said: “We have about 12.9 million registered voters that were submitted to INEC. Let me give you data. APC submitted 12.9 million registered voters. PDP submitted 2.4 million registered voters. The ADC submitted 1.6 million registered voters. Labour Party submitted 1.3 million registered voters. NDC submitted 700,000 registered members,” he said.

So these are the data. If you put all these political parties together, they don’t add up to APC’s registered members. All the political parties, this number I’ve counted, they’re not up to the number that APC registered.”

Yilwatda said the ruling party’s membership strength surpassed the combined figures of opposition political parties, insisting that the APC remained the most organised political platform in the country.

He claimed that the APC was the only political party whose membership database had been verified through the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).

“But even the most important thing in our own case is that we have verified data. All our data of our members are verified by NIMC. We synchronise the data with NIMC,” he stated.

Yilwatda also defended the outcome of the APC presidential primary election, saying about 10.9 million members voted for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu during the exercise.

According to him, the turnout showed that only about two million registered APC members failed to participate in the primary election nationwide.

Tjra:
If you believe Pato is 36, you will definitely believe Papa Osekola is 64.

Ibehchizzy:
Your president is partying by the way
Ronu ooo

morikee:
With or without rigging can you win that primary?

femi4:
Our God is an awesome God