Nigeria: Peter Obi says he will quit ADC if internal process fails
By Zuleihat Owuiye, Mamos Nigeria
Peter Obi, presidential aspirant on the platform of the African Democratic Congress, says he will leave the party if its internal processes are compromised, insisting his past defections were driven by principle, not convenience.
Speaking during an interview on Arise Television’s _Prime Time_ on Monday, Obi pushed back against criticism that he abandons parties rather than fixing their problems. He said his decisions to leave previous platforms were responses to flawed or unethical systems.
“I moved from APGA to the PDP because I had issues with my successor, the governor, who came after me. I will not allow it to become toxic and become destructive to his governance of the state. I moved out,” he said.
Obi explained that he left the Peoples Democratic Party due to irregularities in its primaries. “In PDP, I said it before, people were not playing by the rules, it was transactional, I cannot be part of transactional primary, I cannot be paying people to serve them, so I moved to Labour,” he stated.
The former Anambra State governor also blamed the ruling party and the Federal Government for the crisis that prompted his exit from the Labour Party. He cited delays in implementing a Supreme Court ruling as an example. “In Labour Party, Supreme Court decided against it in April, INEC did not recognise it until 7th of January, eight months after,” he said. He added that he believed there was an attempt to keep him trapped in a dysfunctional system.
“They thought I would be there for the fire to burn me. When I now escape they will now say Peter Obi cannot stay to put out the fire which they put and then I left,” he said.
On his current membership in the ADC, Obi said he remains committed for now but warned he would act if the same problems emerge. “I am in ADC with the same people, some of whom I left in PDP and other parties but we are going through the same process, if that process is again compromised, I will speak out,” he said.
He stressed that credible internal processes are non-negotiable for him. “If I have to move twenty times, I will do it. You cannot use the process of yesterday to build tomorrow.”
Obi also denied any involvement in electoral or judicial malpractice. “I’ve never been involved in any form of rigging. I’ve never been part of paying people in judiciary or anywhere to give me judgment I do not deserve,” he said.
