“Atiku’s Ally Accuses Tinubu and Amupitan of Undermining Opposition and Democracy in ADC Crisis”

Paul Ibeh, media advisor to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, on Tuesday charged President Bola Tinubu and the chairperson of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, with attempting to weaken Nigeria’s opposition and democracy.

This statement arises against the backdrop of the suspension of David Mark’s leadership of the ADC by INEC.

In a post on X, Ibeh asserted that presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga had suggested that Nafiu Bala had taken over as the ADC national chairperson, alleging that this development was orchestrated by the President and INEC.

He challenged this turn of events, pointing out that INEC had previously initiated legal proceedings disputing Bala’s qualification for the ADC chair, and questioned what had changed since that time.

Ibeh further accused Tinubu and Amupitan of engineering what he termed a “democratic blunder,” cautioning that such maneuvers could lead to a slide toward dictatorship.

He mentioned that the current scenario is reminiscent of historical political events in Nigeria’s recent past.

He wrote: “Bayo Onanuga is tweeting on his X account that Nafiu Bala is now the ADC Chairman because his Tinubu’s @NGRPresident and Amupitan’s @inecnigeria are colluding with Bala to eliminate the opposition and inevitably undermine Nigeria’s democracy.”

“This is the same INEC that initiated legal actions last year to explain why Bala should not be entitled to the Chairmanship of the ADC. What has shifted since that time?

“Tinubu and Amupitan are the ones fabricating the democratic blunder. Our message to them is that this dictatorship might persist, but not for an extended period. Does this invoke memories of another period in our recent history?”