July 3, 2025 by and Sunny Nwankwo

Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister Nyesom Wike described the defectors to ADC  as expired politicians.

The minister said “those politicians have refused to see anything good in the current administration.”

He spoke during the inauguration of a project executed by the TInubu Administration in Abuja yesterday.

Aviation Minister Festus Keyamo (SAN) last night said the new political coalition that joined the ADC poses no threat to the ruling APC.

In a post on X, he stated: “The emergence of ADC as presently constituted marks the formal dismemberment of the PDP, hitherto Nigeria’s strongest opposition party.

“Majority of the old guard in the PDP (who have apparently lost control of the Party) have been pushed out of the party by the Younger Turks within the PDP.

“That is why the gathering today was a conglomerate of ‘former this’ and ‘former that’ of the PDP. No matter how you look at it, this is just Atiku’s faction of PDP in desperate search for the 2027 Presidential ticket – nothing more, nothing less.

“The other addition to the so-called ‘coalition’ is a sprinkling of APC members who actually worked against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the last election and one or two APC leaders who lost their constituencies to opposition parties in 2023.

“Their movement therefore takes NOTHING away from the APC. It is actually better for the APC because it is just a case of totally extracting the germ that was eating the cola nut from within.

“The person who the old, cunning guards want to take for a ride in all of this is Peter Obi. They want his votes but don’t want to give him their Presidential ticket, because this is Atiku’s show simpliciter. That is why David Mark is the interim Chairman. Those who know politics know what I am saying.

“But if you do not give Peter Obi the Presidential ticket, you lose his supporters. It is as simple as that. And how can you make someone who won two regions in the last election (Southeast and Southsouth) a running mate to the person who won only one region (Northeast)?

“Therefore, when the dust settles, you will discover that PDP and the Labour Party have lost something, the ADC has only gained something like a caricature, but the APC has lost ABSOLUTELY nothing.

“What this all means is that since the 2023 elections, the APC has become stronger, whilst the opposition parties have been fragmented and have become weaker.

“Those who have defected to the APC since 2023 (the Governors, Senators, Honourable members, etc) put side-by-side with a small handful who have left the APC, who would you rather have in your ranks? That is where lies the key to the whole analysis.

“For now, let us face governance and allow them to exercise their constitutional right to associate and assemble.

Special Adviser to the President on Policy Communication, Daniel Bwala, also dismissed the group as a futile enterprise driven by disgruntled politicians.

He took to his X handle to describe the political realignment as “a dead on arrival party,” populated by what he called an “association of wild goose chasers.”

“Association of wild goose chasers, consisting of internally displaced politicians forming a dead on arrival party; better described in the words of @PeterObi as ‘structure of criminality,’” Bwala wrote in the post.

Abia State Governor  Alex Otti says he has no plan to join any coalition to defeat President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the 2027 general election.

 Otti also denounced rumours that he intends to dump the  Labour Party (LP) for the All Progressives Congress (APC). 

I’m still a member of the Labour Party and I’m not looking for where to defect  to. I am happy where I am,’’  he told members of the state global economic council in Umuahia yesterday.

On the coalition movement, the governor said:  A lot of people have been asking me: ‘Are you a member of the coalition?’  

‘’My response is, have you seen my name? Have you seen me attending the coalition meetings?

“We are just busy doing the work that Abia people have given us. So, we are not attending any coalition meeting, I have not attended any one, and nobody has invited me.

“We had issues, if you don’t have issues, you are dead…  When we had our problems, we fought in the Supreme Court and retrieved our party at the Supreme Court. I believe that a few issues that remain would be resolved very soon because the Supreme Court judgment was very, very clear.” 

Osun PDP Chairman Sunday Bisi said Governor Ademola Adeleke would not join the coalition.

Speaking in Osogbo, the state capital, Bisi said: “We(Adeleke and his supporters) remain with PDP. We are in PDP, we are not going anywhere. I can assure you, we are not going anywhere.

“We are in democracy. Before APC came to power in 2016, they also formed a coalition. There’s nothing wrong with those people coming together to form a coalition.”

Reacting to Atiku’s remark that PDP is too weak to win any election, the Osun PDP chairman said: “I wouldn’t know, let us wait and see. I wouldn’t agree with him. This will not be the first time Atiku will leave PDP and PDP won in his absence.”