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The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has said it will petition the international community over what it described as persistent attacks on its members across Nigeria by the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The party alleged that the violent assaults on its members were becoming a pattern in all states controlled by the All Progressives Congress (APC), raising concerns about a deliberate attempt to suppress opposition ahead of the 2027 elections.
Speaking, the ADC’s National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, accused the ruling party of suppressing opposition and “setting the stage for violent elections in 2027.”
He said, “We will send petitions to relevant international missions, starting with the ECOWAS Court. We want the international community to pay attention to what the APC is doing to democracy and to suppress opposition in Nigeria.”
The ADC had recorded several attacks on its members in Kaduna, Ekiti, Ogun, and Lagos states.
On August 30, a meeting of the ADC attended by the former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, was violently attacked by thugs.
Many members of the ADC were injured in the incident, which El-Rufai condemned as “a dangerous descent into lawlessness.”
The party’s secretariat in Ekiti State was, in the early hours of last Tuesday, set ablaze ahead of an inauguration ceremony for its state executives.
It was reported that some hoodlums who invaded the secretariat attacked members, vandalised vehicles and motorcycles, and disrupted arrangements for the event.
The ADC National Secretary, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, who went to perform the inauguration, described the attack as “a shameful display of intolerance, a threat to democracy, and political tolerance.”
In Lagos, the ADC reported that hoodlums attacked its members during a rally held at Lion Field in the Alimosho area to welcome the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, and the party’s 2023 governorship flagbearer in Lagos State, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour.
In August, the Ogun State chapter of the ADC accused the police of disrupting its campaign in Sagamu for the Remo Federal Constituency by-election held on August 16.
Commenting on the attacks in an interview with our correspondent on Saturday, Abdullahi said the ADC needed to inform the international community about what its members were going through in the country.
He said, “Attacks on our members are becoming a pattern, particularly in APC-controlled states, and it makes us begin to think whether there is an agenda somewhere to ensure that our party does not take root in some states or to terrorise our members.”
Abdullahi recalled that a court in Canada had, a few months ago, described the APC and the Peoples Democratic Party as terrorist organisations, saying recent attacks were only reinforcing that perception.
“They are living up to that with what they are doing to our members, and they are not doing anything to change that impression. What it means is that democracy is suffering under the APC. Democracy is under attack under the APC.
“I also see that they are setting the stage for a violent electoral process in 2027. If the 2027 elections degenerate into violence, the APC should be blamed. They are already setting the stage for it.
“They are demonstrating intolerance for opposition. They have a mentality of winning at all costs. We have been attacked in Kaduna, Lagos, Ogun, and Ekiti states, and that kind of rhetoric is also coming out from Kogi and Edo.”
