By Ayo Kehinde
The Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) has accused the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of sponsoring some aspirants seeking political offices on the platform of the party in a bid to infiltrate and destabilise its internal processes ahead of Friday’s primary.
The party said it had already identified and confronted the affected aspirants during screening, warning that none of them would secure the party’s tickets.
Speaking on Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television programme on Thursday, the National Publicity Secretary of the NDC, Osa Director, alleged that intelligence gathered by the party showed that certain aspirants across different states were allegedly acting as agents of the ruling party.
According to him, the NDC was determined to prevent infiltration by political opportunists and persons allegedly planted to weaken the party from within ahead of the 2027 general elections.
“We are not in a position to disclose all of our strategy because we know that we are fighting a behemoth, which is the ruling party. During the screening, even though we did not disqualify any person, we confronted some of those aspirants. Do you know that there are aspirants who are in the NDC that are being sponsored by the ruling party? We know that from the various states, and because we also have our intelligence, we confronted them. Those ones already know that they are not getting the ticket because we know that they are moles planted in the party”, Director stated.
The NDC spokesman also warned politicians seeking to exploit the rising profile of the party and the reported alliance between former Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and former Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, to gain political relevance.
Director maintained that the party would not hand tickets to aspirants lacking political pedigree, ideological commitment and loyalty to the party’s core values.
He quoted the party’s national leader, Seriake Dickson, as saying that the NDC was not a “special multipurpose vehicle” for politicians seeking personal advantage.
“Like the national leader of the party, Seriake Dickson, said, NDC is not a special multipurpose vehicle for anyone, and that is the truth. We are ensuring that we are telling members that this is not a special multipurpose vehicle for you. We have some things we have put in place to checkmate these opportunistic charlatans who may want to take advantage of NDC as a vehicle”, he said.
Director further stated that the party had learnt from the experience of the Labour Party during the 2023 elections and would not allow a repeat of what he described as the infiltration of inexperienced political actors.
According to him, the NDC became cautious after observing an influx of aspirants, including individuals from the diaspora with little or no previous political involvement, who allegedly rushed to obtain forms under the party’s platform.
“We are not following the playbook of the Labour Party. It is only an inexperienced person that will not learn lessons from history. We have learnt from the incident of the past that happened in the Labour Party. And that was why during our screening, we took particular notice of the fact that a lot of people, especially people from the diaspora, who have never participated in politics, rushed to pick forms under the platform of the NDC probably to ride on the Obi-Kwankwaso wave. And also because they see that the NDC is a vibrant alternative platform to the mess we are having in the country today. We are conscious of all that,” he said.
