The African Democratic Congress (ADC) says it has suspended its 2023 presidential candidate, Dumebi Kachikwu, over alleged anti-party activities.
The party made this known in a Saturday statement signed by its Deputy National Chairman (Politics), Bamidele Ajadi.
Ajadi said that Kachikwu has been making “defamatory” statements in contravention of the ADC’s ethos.
He said that the decision to suspend the presidential candidate was taken on Friday at an emergency National Working Committee (NWC) meeting but failed to disclose the location.
The party said it considered Kachikwu’s actions as “smacking of crass irresponsibility, gross indiscipline, disingenuous scandalization and blackmail and completely unfit of someone who wants to be President of Nigeria.”
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“The NWC viewed with great concern the baseless and defamatory video made, published and circulated by Mr. Dumebi Kachikwu, which was intended to disparage and impugn the integrity and image of a peaceful and transformation-oriented African Democratic Congress and its national officers.”
According to Ajadi, the presidential candidate’s speech in the said video contravened the principles and values upon which ADC was founded and the specific provision of Article 16 of the ADC Constitution.
“Act(s) conduct or utterances likely to bring the party into hatred, contempt or ridicule; engaging in dishonest practices, defrauding the party, its members or officials; engaging in anti-party activities; unauthorized publicity of Party dispute or fractionalization or creating parallel Party organ(s) at any level; engaging in any other activities likely to cause disaffection among Party members or likely to disrupt the peaceful, lawful and efficient conduct of party business; belonging to any such factional group or organ; collusion or conspiracy to convene unauthorized meetings, shall constitute acts of gross misconduct,” the statement also said.
Ajadi explained that the NWC strongly believes that to demean the character of the founders and financiers of ADC, who have worked tirelessly to build an enviable brand that Nigerians are proud of and which many great minds have stood elections under, smacks of gross indiscipline.
The party noted that there have been several actions, publications and utterances in the past aimed at maligning the ADC national officers, which the NWC chose to ignore, for peace to reign.
Besides the alleged misdeeds committed in the video, Ajadi said that since Kachikwu’s emergence on June 9, he has also “refused to share with the party any meaningful, constructive or reasonable Presidential Campaign Roadmap for the forthcoming presidential election.”
“His negative actions and/or inactions so far, have put in jeopardy the fate and prospects of all our candidates contesting for various offices across the country. The committee of the whole house, in a very clear and unequivocal term, condemned the said video in its entirety and described it as a piece of badly crafted blackmail and mudslinging, and thereby unanimously recommended his immediate suspension from the party from today, Friday 2nd September 2022.
“This resolution would be forwarded to the National Executive Council for further actions.”
The Herald recalls that Kachikwu defeated a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Prof. Kingsley Moghalu to clinch the ADC presidential ticket.