The African Democratic Congress has said that Peter Obi and Nasir El-Rufai can remain in their current political parties ahead of the 2027 elections.
The party’s interim National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, confirmed the decision to The PUNCH on Wednesday.
This comes a day after the ADC’s interim National Chairman, David Mark, warned against disloyalty and insisted that members must fully commit to the party.
“There will be zero tolerance for anti-party and any form of indiscipline; you are either in ADC or not in ADC,” Mark had said.
He told members at the Abuja meeting that the party would rework its structures to reflect new realities and give young people more space in the system.
Even though the ADC has become the main platform for the opposition coalition, there has been talk that Obi and others were being pressured to dump their old parties.
However, Obi’s team dismissed this.
Speaking to journalist, the National Coordinator of the Obidient Movement Worldwide, Dr Yunusa Tanko, said Obi already made his position clear.
“Even before we got into the issue of the coalition, our principal has made his position known ab initio, that he is still a Labour man and the coalition that he joined is for 2027,” Tanko said.
“Obi actually made that clear when the coalition was at the formation stage. So we don’t see it as anything because we already made our position known right from the beginning.”
When asked to confirm this, Abdullahi agreed, saying both Obi and El-Rufai had asked for and received permission to remain in their original parties.
“Absolutely! Obi is correct. This applies to himself and Nasir (El-Rufai),” Abdullahi said.
“This is because their supporters and allies have obtained forms to contest the election in their legacy parties. So we cannot ask them to defect. It will affect the structures of those following them. They were therefore granted a concession to remain in their parties until after the election.”
“In a nutshell, they requested a concession and they were granted.”
Meanwhile, Obi has denied two statements being shared online which claimed he rejected a return to the PDP and accepted a new role in the ADC.
His media aide, Umar Ibrahim, in a statement on Wednesday, said the former Anambra governor never made such comments.
“Peter Obi has been unequivocal in his position in the ongoing coalition and didn’t need anyone to put words into his mouth,” Ibrahim said.
“He has remained focused on his mission but would not accept anybody attributing a statement to him just to satisfy their devious agenda.”
The media office urged the public to ignore any statements not released through Obi’s official handles.
