Dumebi Kachikwu, a former presidential candidate on the African Democratic Congress platform in the 2023 election, has claimed that the new coalition was entirely schemed to serve Atiku Abubakar’s presidential ambitions.

In an interview on Channels TV on Sunday, Mr Kachikwu stated that the coalition was not established to address the existential challenges facing Nigerians.

“The whole ADC structure is being packaged for the former Vice President Atiku Abubakar,” Mr Dumebi alleged. “Since I started warning people about what is happening, we can see what is happening within the coalition. It was just a vehicle for Atiku Abubakar’s ambition.”

The politician stated that Peter Obi would soon exit the coalition, claiming the platform would not provide the Labour Party’s former presidential candidate with the opportunity to contest in the next presidential election.

“Someone like Mr Peter Obi now understands that the whole coalition was packaged for Atiku Abubakar. From our understanding, what we are seeing now is that he is looking in other directions, and other people who aspire to run now realise that the coalition was indeed no coalition,” Mr Kachikwu added.

Noting the coalition members are grossly unprepared to serve Nigerians, Mr Kachikwu said, “People who destroyed our country are here again to deceive the people. Nigerians are yearning for fresh ideas and perspectives. These people are inconsistent with the reality of the country. We won’t allow them to ruin the party.”

Peoples Gazette reported how shortly after the coalition was launched, Mr Kachikwu started a disinformation campaign, using incautious media outlets to spread unfounded claims that he owned the ADC infrastructure.

Ahead of the 2023 election, Kachikwu was fingered as attempting to undermine the ADC as an agent of Bola Tinubu, the APC candidate. 

Mr Kachikwu denied these allegations, but later public statements showed his support for Mr Tinubu.