Former Governor of Rivers State, Rt. Hon. Rotimi Amaechi, has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of frustrating the efforts of opposition political parties to form a formidable force against the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2027 general elections.
Rt. Hon. Amaechi, a former Minister of Transport and a member of the opposition coalition on the platform of the African Democratic Party, said this on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday.
According to him, “Every member of the opposition who belongs to the coalition is a member of the ADC. Are we stopping at that? The answer is no. I head a committee with the mandate of the coalition to pursue the registration of the ADA (All Democratic Alliance).
“Now, if INEC had registered ADA, we would probably not have bothered about going to the ADC. The political space is closed for the benefit of the APC. I come to say that the INEC chairman is not ashamed,” he said.
Amaechi, a member of the opposition coalition on the platform of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), said that INEC’s leadership was deliberately delaying the registration of opposition parties.
He also sadi, the ADC is part of a broader coalition aimed at defeating the APC in the 2027 general elections.
He further expressed frustration with INEC’s handling of the registration process, alleging that the commission is biased against opposition parties.
His words: “In fact, what is holding the ADA for now is that we have yet to bring the address of our offices and the officers of the party that will submit in the next meeting.
”I don’t want to call the other parties that had gone ahead with the registration, and INEC just ignored it completely.
“Some of them, their rents have expired. So, the chairman of INEC is deliberately doing that so that there will be nobody fighting the APC. And they’re not even ashamed that after (Maurice) Iwu, they organised the worst election; I would be ashamed,” he added.
The former governor, however, said that the ADC would mobilise Nigerians to vote and stop people from rigging elections.
“And with the way things are going, what ADC will do and I said that all of us would do that is to mobilise Nigerians to rise, to vote, and to stop these people from rigging, including the INEC, because those who constitute this rigging machine are not up to 10.
”In fact, two per cent of the population, the rest 98 per cent must get up and stop them, because if not, you’ll start crying again,” he said.
Amaechi’s comments come amid growing talks about the emergence of a coalition aimed at unseating President Bola Tinubu and the APC in the 2027 general elections.
The opposition coalition, which include notable figures such as former Senate President David Mark, Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi, and Nasir el-Rufai, has adopted the ADC as its platform.
The coalition’s leaders have called on Nigerians to join the movement, citing the need to rescue the country from collapse and rebuild its democracy.
However, President Tinubu has dismissed the coalition, describing its members as persons who have been internally displaced politically.
