Umar Ardo, a promoter of the All Democratic Alliance (ADA), has outlined the alleged involvement of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi in the party’s registration process.
According to him, Amaechi chaired the committee responsible for processing ADA’s registration, while Atiku nominated a representative who also served on the committee.
He made the remarks on Wednesday while speaking on The Morning Show on Arise Television.
Ardo further stated that he personally served as secretary of the committee, with Amaechi acting as chairman.
He explained that the committee finalized its plan and subsequently submitted an application for ADA’s registration to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Ardo claimed that the initiative to register ADA originated from him, and he had actively promoted it within the opposition coalition.
However, he said the situation shifted when coalition members reportedly lost interest in the new party. Ardo alleged that Amaechi later aligned himself with the African Democratic Congress (ADC) after expressing interest in contesting the presidency on its platform.
Despite their exit, Ardo noted that ADA promoters replaced the departing committee members and resubmitted the required documents to continue the registration process. Ardo said: “Who were those in it? Rotimi Amaechi, who nominated one of his guys as chairman. Then former Vice President Atiku, who nominated one of his people as secretary in our committee. I was the secretary of that committee and Rotimi Amaechi was the chairman of that committee. We agreed, and then we moved in and made the application.
“And I want you to know that the idea of the registration of the ADA was mine, and I pushed it very forcefully, you know, to the to the coalition.
“So when the coalition came and said they are no longer interested in it, Amaechi moved in. And when I said he was going to contest for President in ADC, then the chairman himself went to register in ADC in his own hometown in Cross River state. Then the Secretary was appointed, not only moved to the ADC, but he was also appointed as a deputy national chairman (North central- diaspora).
“So just because these people have moved out, that shouldn’t kill the registration of the ADA. We now quickly met and then made substitution and submitted.
“They said they were going, now they came back that they want to join the ADA again in order to forestall, you know, an early judgment by the court.”