Disenchanted political front-runners in the South-South geopolitical zone are mobilising the people against the takeover of the oil-rich region by President Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the 2027 elections.

Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, former national chairman of the APC; Rt. Hon. Rotimi Amaechi and Mr. Liyel Imoke superintend the operation in the oil-rich region. The trio were former governors of Edo, Rivers, and Cross River States, respectively.

Professor Pat Utomi, an economist and management don; Professor Osarhiemen Osunbor, a former governor of Edo State; Senator Roland Owie, a former Chief Whip of the Senate; and Chief Great Ogboru, a successive gubernatorial candidate in Delta State, are part of the move.

Amaechi tackles Tinubu and Wike in Rivers

The battle in Rivers State is between ex-governor Amaechi, leader of the ADC in the South-South, and Nyesom Wike, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, and also a former governor of Rivers State.

President Tinubu is participating in the scramble for Rivers State and other South-South states because of his re-election. Wike has reinvigorated his plan to take control of the state in the August 30 local government election, with his loyalists deliberately selected to boost his political structure at the grassroots.

However, there is a threat of mass defection from both the PDP and APC to the ADC. The coalition, though not officially launched in the state, has gained recognition in almost all 23 local government areas.

When Amaechi?s teeming supporters, friends, and political associates received him at the International Airport, Omagwa, on July 23, it was apparent that some Rivers people and non-indigenes alike see the ADC as a veritable alternative to the two major rival political parties, APC and PDP.

Amaechi told the mammoth crowd that the cardinal objective of the new party was to remove both President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the APC government through electoral means in 2027, stating it was the only way to end hardship and hunger in the country.

?I am tired of this government. If a rich man spends N4m for electricity, only God knows how you, the masses, spend.? He said Tinubu must be stopped by all means.

The defection of Amaechi to the ADC caused panic in the APC because former President Goodluck Jonathan lost his reelection in 2015 when he (Amaechi) led five other governors against him.

Amaechi instructed his followers to register with the ADC to halt the practice of writing election results at the state?s Government House.

Senator Andrew Uchendu, a powerful force in the politics of the Ikwerre ethnic nationality in the state, is with Amaechi in the ADC. Dr. Gabriel Pidomson, a former secretary to the Rivers State Government (SSG), Hon. Asita Asita, a former deputy governorship candidate of the APC in the 2015 election, and many others are supposedly working underground to change the APC narrative at both the state and national levels.

Political pundits in Rivers State think that the emergence of the ADC will alter permutations in the 2027 general elections in the state.

ADC unravels in Edo

Since the ADC in Edo State held its stakeholders? meeting at the Benin City residence of Odigie-Oyegun, the party is reportedly gathering momentum in the state.

At the first meeting, the leaders vowed to win the August 16 by-elections in the state and the 2027 presidential election.

Oyegun never fully reintegrated into the APC when the powers that be replaced him as APC national chairman with Senator Adams Oshiomhole, another former governor of the state. He embraced ex-governor Godwin Obaseki when he had issues with Oshiomhole before he defected to the PDP and now the ADC.

He told reporters after the first ADC meeting in his home that the gathering was to brief leaders on developments and to receive groups from other political parties, adding, ?In a few days, we will do the fantastic convert.? Professor Osunbor had wanted to contest the last governorship election in the state on the APC platform, but the leadership clique did not reckon with him. The cabal favored Senator Monday Okpekholo, the current governor, who secured the ticket and was subsequently declared winner of the governorship election.

Osunbor called on Edolites to rally around the coalition, adding, ?There are people of integrity in ADC who will ensure a change in the system of governance in Nigeria.?

With Senator Owie, who abandoned the PDP to join the ADC, and Senator Ehigie Uzamere, the leaders have undertaken to dislodge the APC in the state. Hon. Sergius Ogun, a former member of the House of Representatives, is the Edo Central senatorial candidate of the ADC for next Saturday?s by-election in the state.

Owie, who led the members of the League of Democrats, a political pressure group, to the new coalition, told Saturday Vanguard, ?We, the League of Democrats, have been holding meetings every Thursday for the past three months, and we have agreed to become members of the ADC. The ADC will lead Nigeria; we are ready, and I appeal to all of you to join.?

Another grassroots figure in the state?s ADC is Kenneth Imansuagbon, a former Labour Party candidate for governor who has served in the PDP and APC.

Nobody can stop the coalition in Cross River ? Senator Imoke

The ADC berthed in Calabar, the capital of Cross River State, with an undertaking to take over the mantle of leadership both at the state and federal levels.

Senator Imoke, at the inaugural meeting of the coalition, stated that taking over the leadership of Cross River State and Nigeria from the APC was not a jest, and strategies were already in motion to accomplish it.

Dr. Ambassador John Ogar is the state chairman of the ADC. Senator Gershom Bassey, Hon. Eta Mbora, Hon. Bassey Ewa, Ekpo Okon, and Emmanuel Ibeshi have identified with the party.

Others include Chief Ugba Ray Murphy, an aide to Ben Ayade, former governor, and Dr. Usani Uguru Usani, former minister of the Niger Delta under the late President Muhammadu Buhari. Usani, a founding member of the APC, defected to the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) to contest the gubernatorial election in the 2023 polls.

With the chieftains of the PDP, LP, PRP, and other parties in the state storming the inaugural ceremony, the ADC is a political force in the state.

The PDP held sway in Cross River politics for over two decades, winning six gubernatorial elections and a host of other elective positions before capitulating to the APC in the 2023 gubernatorial elections. Many of the major stakeholders who made the feat possible have congregated in the ADC.

Imoke told ADC faithful, ?We are not joking about the takeover in 2027; no amount of propaganda can stop the coalition.?

Usani, in a brief remark, said, ?Remember, at the time we were trying to build up the APC, several people saw us as madmen, but we transcended and overcame.

?In politics, if you don?t have an anchor, if you don?t have an umbrella, you are wasting your time, but we are privileged to have you (Sen. Liyel Imoke) at the center, and we say we will work with you.

?I left the APC when former President Buhari, who appointed me minister, was still in office. The party failed Nigerians because they couldn?t fulfill the promises they made to the people.?

Sen. Gershom Bassey, a long-time political associate of Imoke, declared, ?We are not doing anything childish. What we are doing is exercising our freedom of speech and association. You shouldn?t be bothered by what people are saying about the ADC outside.

Covert operation in Akwa Ibom to halt APC, PDP

In Akwa Ibom State, where the governor, Umo Eno, defected from the PDP to the APC in June, the ADC is on a mission to dislocate both the APC and PDP.

Duke Gabriel, the chairman of the ADC in Akwa-Ibom State, told Saturday Vanguard that over seven blocs, including the PDP, APC, SDP, LP, and others, fused to form the party in the state.

?The blocs prefer their names not mentioned for now, but I can tell you we have taken over the state. As I speak, membership registration is ongoing across Akwa Ibom State. The ward chairmen are coordinating, and the turnout is massive.?

Okolie reveals inroads in Delta

Chairman of the ADC in Delta State, Mr. Austin Okolie, told Saturday Vanguard, ?Part of the PDP, most especially those who refused to go along with the leaders of the party to the APC, are familiarizing themselves with us as well as the Coalition for the Protection of Democracy in Delta State.?

He disclosed that Chief Great Ogboru, the gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the 2023 general election, is part of the coalition partnering with the ADC.

Ogboru, popularly known as the ?people?s general,? only recently returned to the APC, under which platform he contested the governorship election in 2019.

He had previously vied for the gubernatorial seat as a candidate of the Democratic People?s Party (DPP) and the Labour Party (LP).

Another top leader of the coalition is Professor Pat Utomi, an economist and management expert. Utomi, who vied for the governorship seat under the APC in 2019 but lost in the party?s primaries.

Okolie said some notable figures, whom I cannot mention now, are working underground. We have many coalition partners, and we are planning to have a general convergence of coalition partners in the state. Soon, we hope to hold a general coalition unveiling, in which all coalition partners will join forces to carry out the unveiling.?

According to Okolie, the first step in the ADC?s strategy to win the 2027 general election was to establish the framework.

?You can tell that no one is content with the state of this nation by the way the populace is demanding good governance. I?m not sure what this government has accomplished for which we should be proud.

Grows stronger in Bayelsa with ex-gov, Senator Ikisikpo marshalling

With Bayelsa State assuming strategic positions in the leadership structure of the ADC, the coalition is gradually transforming into a major opposition force in the predominantly riverine state, where the ruling PDP has maintained its dominance for over two decades.

An ex-governor helped the coalition to secure a magnificent office complex in the heart of Yenagoa, the state capital. Senator Clever Ikisikpo, a former PDP senator, recently secured a spot in the national executive committee of the ADC, along with others appointed to form the enlarged national executive.

Ikisikpo, who represented Bayelsa East, the senatorial district of President Jonathan, defected from the PDP to the APC at the end ?f his tenure in the Senate.

He was among the first to identify with the coalition in Bayelsa State and is now the ADC?s deputy national treasurer. Victor Isaiah, a former Brass council chairman in the state, is reportedly the ADC?s national assistant youth leader.

Also mentioned are Commodore Benjamin Nathus (retd), a former deputy governorship candidate of the Labour Party, and Chief Asara A. Asara, a grassroots politician and a chieftain of the PDP.

An ADC leader in the state hinted, ?The ADC is a party where everybody is welcome. Many party bigwigs from the APC and PDP have expressed interest, but they have not officially resigned from their party. At the appropriate time, they will be unveiled.?

?The gubernatorial election won?t be held in Bayelsa State until 2028; our party will sweep most of the seats in the coming State and National Assembly elections and, by the grace of God, produce the next president of the country.?

?The party?s recent acquisition of a suitable office secretariat complex along DSP Alamieyeseigha Way, Yenagoa, and the registration of over 700,000 members throughout the state demonstrate the party?s growing popularity and influence as a substitute platform for the people of the state,? he continued. (Saturday Vanguard)

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