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The Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) has alleged that some aspirants seeking political offices under the party’s platform were sponsored by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
The party made this allegation on Thursday, saying it has identified and confronted the alleged moles. The NDC added that the identified aspirants will not secure the party’s tickets ahead of the primaries scheduled for Friday.
The National Publicity Secretary of the NDC, Osa Director, said the party is determined to prevent infiltration by political opportunists and agents allegedly planted by the ruling party.
He warned that the NDC was not a special-purpose vehicle for any individual, insisting that no aspirant will ride on the fame of the Peter Obi-Rabiu Kwankwaso alliance to acquire votes or political relevance within the party.
According to him, only aspirants with verifiable political pedigree and commitment to the party’s principles and values will be given tickets.
“We are not in a position to disclose all of our strategy because we know that we are fighting a behemoth, which is the ruling party. During the screening, even though we did not disqualify any person, we confronted some of those aspirants. Do you know that there are aspirants who are in the NDC that are being sponsored by the ruling party? We know that from the various states, and because we also have our intelligence, we confronted them.
“Those ones already know that they are not getting the ticket because we know that they are moles planted in the party,” he said.
The NDC National Publicity Secretary went further, quoting the party’s national leader, Seriake Dickson, saying that the NDC was not a “special multipurpose vehicle” for politicians looking for personal advantage.
“Like the national leader of the party, Seriake Dickson, said, NDC is not a special multipurpose vehicle for anyone, and that is the truth.
“We are telling members that this is not a special multipurpose vehicle for you. We have some things we have put in place to checkmate these opportunistic charlatans who may want to take advantage of NDC as a vehicle,” he said.
Director continued, “We are not following the playbook of the Labour Party. It is only an inexperienced person that will not learn lessons from history.
“We have learnt from the incident of the past that happened in the Labour Party. And that was why during our screening, we took particular notice of the fact that a lot of people, especially people from the diaspora, who have never participated in politics, rushed to pick forms under the platform of the NDC probably to ride on the Obi-Kwankwaso wave. And also because they see that the NDC is a vibrant alternative platform to the mess we are having in the country today. We are conscious of all that”.
He also explained that the party has learnt lessons from the Labour Party (LP)’s experience and will not repeat similar mistakes.
