Former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi.

…Says mistake I made in 2023 was listening to Buhari

By Olayinka Ajayi

Vice presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, has warned that the Federal High Court judgment against the leadership of his party could trigger unrest.

Last Thursday, the Federal High Court in Abuja nullified the National Working Committee led by former Senate President, David Mark, in a ruling that also invalidated the process that produced former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar as the party’s presidential candidate for the 2027 elections.

The judgment, delivered by Justice Peter Lifu, also nullified the emergence of former Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, as National Secretary, and other decisions taken by the Mark-led leadership, including the nomination of candidates for elective offices. The court further ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, not to recognise or act on decisions taken at the party’s 99th National Executive Committee meeting of July 27, 2025.

The judgment followed a suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1819/2025, filed by former ADC Deputy National Chairman (North-East), Nafiu Gombe, who challenged the process through which Mark and other members of the caretaker committee assumed control of the party.

Speaking in an interview on Mainland 98.3fm, Amaechi said: “It could cause a civil war if not properly managed. When we heard the news, we quickly met, myself and the presidential candidate and the chairman of the party, and we said: ‘please, lower the tempo’. I am not alleging, as there is a document signed by Nafiu resigning at the same time as Ralph Nwosu. There is a video of him behind David Mark handing over to David Mark. They go to hire, pay money, go to court and compromise some system here and there. There is no internal rift in our party, none. It is just the fear of the All Progressives Congress, APC.

When they saw what happened in Sokoto, they began to cause a crisis that would frighten voters. Looking at things, which other party is opposing the APC other than ADC? The president is from the South-West, and we have three other presidential candidates in the South-West. Even if they don’t get every vote, they would certainly get some votes, and don’t forget the governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde, is also running. Let us assume he fails everywhere in the South-West; he will not fail in Oyo, where he comes from. Assuming he wins Oyo State, that is minus one for Tinubu. There is another presidential candidate from the South-East (Peter Obi) who will take away five states from the South-East. Already, he has lost six states from the South. The battle is in the South-South; I am their son. I am running as a vice presidential candidate. Here is a man called Atiku Abubakar, running alone in the North with 19 Northern states.”

On how he lost the 2023 APC presidential primaries to President Tinubu, he said: “Anybody would have defeated anybody. The only mistake I made was listening to the late President Muhammadu Buhari, who told me: ‘don’t campaign, don’t do anything; I will announce you as my candidate’.” He even had it in writing. When he said that to me, I obeyed him because he was my boss, and if he announced such, that would have been a plus for us. I would have gone for the primaries and possibly won because I had the governors on my side. I didn’t do deals, Tinubu did deals, and second, Tinubu played on religion. I will never play religious politics.”

The delegation of Southern Muslims went to see the Northern governors and told them anytime there’s an election, you people support Southern Christians, and when there’s an election in the North, we support you people, and for the sake of the faith, you need to support Tinubu. Nasir El-Rufai was my supporter. He once said in a viral video that this is done for the faith. Imagine how Christians felt that he wanted to prove that Muslims own Nigeria. I would never run such an election. Catholics are 35 million in Nigeria. I wouldn’t want to run that kind of election. So, the Catholics tell all Catholics to go out and vote for Amaechi; by that, you would cause confusion in the country. I wouldn’t do anything at all cost because I want power.”

ADC judgment could cause civil war if not properly managed—Amaechi

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