Defection hit ADC as leadership crisis persists

ABUJA: Fresh cracks have appeared in the African Democratic Congress (ADC), as former Adamawa State governorship candidate, Sen. Aisha Dahiru, popularly known as Binani, joined the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) just as Rep. Leke Abejide also walked away from the party amid its festering leadership crisis.

Binani, who formally defended her move at her reception into the NDC, said her decision was driven by consultations with her supporters and her belief that the party’s constitution reflects structured, policy-driven governance and internal democracy.

She said politics is dynamic and insisted she bore no resentment toward her former platform.

Her defection came barely a day after Abejide, the lawmaker representing Yagba Federal Constituency of Kogi State, announced his resignation from the ADC, blaming what he described as prolonged internal crisis, leadership uncertainty and the hijack of the party by forces he said derailed its original vision.

Abejide, a two-term House of Representatives member and one of the party’s prominent figures, said the instability in the ADC had become so deep that his lawyers advised him to seek another political platform.

He also dismissed claims that he was expelled, maintaining that he voluntarily left the party.

The latest defections have added to the pressure on the ADC, which is still battling a leadership tussle involving the David Mark-led camp and the Nafiu Bala Gombe faction. The dispute has triggered a series of court cases that left the party’s structure in uncertainty.

The crisis reached the Supreme Court on April 30, when the apex court set aside the Court of Appeal’s order directing parties to maintain the status quo ante bellum in the dispute. The Supreme Court held that the appellate court overreached itself by making that preservatory order and directed the parties to return to the Federal High Court for an accelerated hearing of the substantive case challenging the emergence of the Mark-led executives.

Although the apex court did not finally determine the substantive leadership question, the judgment removed the immediate legal restraint that had clouded the Mark-led leadership’s position.

Soon after the ruling, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) updated its records to reflect David Mark as national chairman and Rauf Aregbesola as national secretary of the ADC.