The African Democratic Congress, ADC, has accused the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, of misleading Nigerians with what it described as “inflated and unverifiable” claims of having up to 11 million members.
According to the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Bolaji Abdullahi, on Monday, the figures being circulated by the APC were not backed by any verifiable membership register, warning that such claims could be used to shape public perception ahead of the 2027 general elections.
He said, “We are very clear about this. We are building a political party that is based on certain principles, one of which is transparency. We cannot go around forming figures because we want to deceive Nigerians.
“What the APC is doing would have been amusing and laughable if we didn’t know it is to set the stage for the rigging of the 2027 general elections by claiming that they have 11 million votes.
“What they are doing is to put it in your head to think, ‘Oh, that is 11 million votes guaranteed.’ It’s all lies. They should produce a verifiable membership register submitted to INEC.
“We challenge them that if they indeed claim that they have 12 million members, they should produce the membership register and let Nigerians check if they actually have 12 million members. They don’t have 12 million members. It’s all lies.”
This comes less than 48 hours after President Bola Tinubu emerged as the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate after defeating Stanley Osifo in the party’s presidential primary election.
Tinubu polled 10.99 million votes to defeat his only rival, who scored 16,504 votes in the APC presidential primaries held across 8,809 wards in the country.
