Derecognition Of ADC Leaders ‘Self-Inflicted’, Says APC

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said the decision by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to derecognise leaders of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), including Senator David Mark and Rauf Aregbesola, was a consequence of the party’s internal actions.

The APC National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, stated this on Thursday during an interview on News Central, dismissing claims that the ruling party was responsible for the development.

Morka said the APC was focused on its own political preparations and had no role in the opposition party’s internal disputes.

“As I’ve always maintained, we are only concerned about our level of preparation and the effort we are making. We’re concerned about ourselves. It is the opposition that is obsessed about what APC does,” he said.

His comments followed INEC’s earlier decision to remove the names of David Mark and Rauf Aregbesola from its official portal as national chairman and national secretary of the ADC, respectively.

The development has since triggered reactions from political stakeholders and supporters of the opposition party.

However, Morka maintained that the crisis within the ADC was self-inflicted.

“Even the most recent development that everyone is talking about, the INEC decision to derecognize the David Mark executive, that was utterly self-inflicted. APC didn’t do that. APC did not orchestrate the hijack of the ADC by that executive, we didn’t,” Morka added.

The APC spokesperson argued that the situation arose from what he described as a disregard for the ADC’s internal rules and constitutional provisions.

“They did that, completely ignoring the rule of law, ignoring the constitution of the party they were putting themselves into,” he said.

According to him, the party’s constitution clearly outlines procedures for leadership succession.

“The party had a constitution about succession. So when you parachute into the party, you take over without reference to the constitutional stipulation about succession on how leadership is ordered in that party, this is the consequence,” he stated.

Morka further insisted that those now criticising the APC were responsible for creating the situation themselves.

“This was exactly made, manufactured by the same people who are complaining now and pointing fingers at the APC. We’re not concerned about all of that,” he said.