Mobolaji Michael
NIGERIA’s president-elect, Asieaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has described the Executive Director of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), Lloyd Ukwu Esq. as “an impostor, hellbent on hoodwinking unsuspecting Nigerians in the diaspora and the international community to further a sinister agenda on behalf of the Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi’.
Dele Alake, Special Adviser to the president-elect, in a release, said that that Mr. Ukwu was “attempting to fraudulently exploit the NADECO platform for Peter Obi against Asiwaju Tinubu is so laughable and a grave insult to the sensibilities of Nigerians who witnessed first-hand the struggle by the pro-democracy group in restoring democratic rule to Nigeria and the roles played by prominent Nigerians, including independence hero and nationalist, Late Chief Anthony Enahoro, Asiwaju Tinubu, Professor Wole Soyinka, General Alani Ipoola Akinrinade, late Commodore Dan Suleiman, Late Rear Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, Chief Cornelius Adebayo and several other pro-democracy activists in exile to birth the freedom from the military dictatorship that Nigerians enjoy today”.
Eighteen-Eleven Media had on Tuesday exclusively reported the expulsion of Asiwaju Tinubu by NADECO USA from the group for allegedly emerging through what they described as “a fraudulent electoral process”. Barrister Ukwu further disclosed that the expulsion would be formalised at an international press conference scheduled for Wednesday at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.
It said it “would not tolerate electoral fraud just because Tinubu, candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), was a founding member of NADECO and a stalwart of NADECO USA”.
The group further disclosed that it has initiated moves to interrogate the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) server and Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines used for the 25th February 2023 presidential election in Nigeria with a view to extracting the original votes cast.
It also said that it will approach the United States Congress “to commence the introduction of a non-binding Resolution calling on the US administration not to recognize the product of the election,” stressing that, “it is the product of a poisonous tree.
The statement reads in part: “We intend to hand out press kits containing, among other things, a synoptic 10-minute video highlighting the major flaws in the process just concluded.
“NADECO will, at the conference, formally sever its relationship with Tinubu as a former founding member of both NADECO (Nigeria) and NADECO (USA) for his participation in the worst electoral fraud in Nigerian recent history.
“Remember NADECO fought Abacha as the military dictator who scuttled the will of the Nigerian people in 1993. Exactly 30 years later, in 2023, NADECO is fighting the same dictatorship but only this time a much more dangerous civilian dictatorship. And mostly perpetuated by one of those who were in the trenches to fight Abacha.
“NADECO will not look the other way simply because the fraud was perpetrated by one of its founding members.
However, Mr. Alake insists that Mr. Ukwu was very peripheral to NADECO group of eminent statesmen and illustrious Nigerians who bore the pain and peril of exile so that Nigeria could be free from the jackboot of military dictatorship of Late General Sani Abacha.
“It is imperative to remind Ukwu, and his desperate paymasters, that while Asiwaju Tinubu put his life and resources on the line during those challenging times, the likes of Peter Obi were either hobnobbing with the military or nowhere to be found.
“In trying to robe himself in an unbefitting garb, Ukwu’s desperation to confer credibility on his mission by using the NADECO name is bound to hit a dead-end and ignominy. To hide under the name of NADECO to deceive the international media and interest groups is an act that should be condemned by right-thinking people.
“We are of a firm belief that Lloyd Ukwu is an agent of the Labour Party and Peter Obi, who were rejected by a majority of Nigerians at the 25 February polls.
“Majority of Nigerians have spoken loud and clear that Asiwaju Tinubu is their choice to lead Nigeria from 29 May 2023. There is absolutely nothing Ukwu and his ilk can do to change this fact of history”, Alake maintains.