The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has reacted to comments made by the APC National Chairman, Dr. Nentawe Yilwatda, that “key ADC figures” would join the party next week, saying that defections will not save the ruling party in 2027.

At a party stakeholders meeting in his home state of Plateau, the APC National chairman had said: “Next week, I will be receiving some notable figures from the ADC.

“Some of those who had defected from PDP have reached out to ADC and are now returning to APC. Many of them have completed their ‘medicals’ and will be officially unveiled next week.”

The ADC, in a statement signed by Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, said that the scramble for membership from across the political spectrum underscores the APC’s growing realization that it has become hugely unpopular with ordinary Nigerians who now hate the ruling party for the hardship it has brought upon them.

The full statement read: “The attention of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) has been drawn to the declaration by the National Chairman of the ruling APC, Dr. Nentawe Yilwatda, at a stakeholders’ meeting in Jos that “key ADC figures” will be received into the APC next week.

“This statement underscores a deep realization by the ruling party that it cannot be saved even if all the governors in Nigeria defected to the ruling party. This is why even with all the governors and senators they have been bragging about, the APC is still desperate for ADC members.

“The truth remains that the APC realizes that it has become the most hated party in Nigeria, and no amount of defections can save the party from Nigerians whose lives and livelihoods the ruling party has destroyed since it came to power.

“Like we have noted earlier, the recent gale of high-profile defections to the ruling party is properly understood by ordinary Nigerians as a gang-up against the people by a ruling elite who have left the people behind in abject poverty and are only interested in self-preservation, even as their people wallow in misery.

“We wonder if the APC has run out of governors to seduce, that it has now turned to shadowy references to unnamed ADC members. If these individuals are so “key”, let the chairman of the hated party mention their names.

“There is nothing new in the game that the APC is playing. It is the same ruinous game that the PDP played at the height of its powers. The APC will also learn the bitter lesson that real democratic power lies with the people and not a few power merchants.” (Nigerian Tribune)