Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has condemned the alleged plot to bar the African Democratic Party (ADC) from using its proposed venue for its national convention slated for today (Tuesday).
The former number two citizen in a post on his X handle on Monday night stated that the move was “shameful and cowardly abuse of public office”.
The ADC had claimed on Monday that the proprietor of the proposed venue for the ADC convention, Rainbow Event Centre, had said he had come under pressure from the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesome Wike that their licence would be withdrawn if ADC is allowed the use of the facility.
Reacting, Atiku said, “The reports from the spokesperson of our great party, which exposes the plans of the government and its agents to revoke the licence of Rainbow Event Centre for the singular offence of hosting the African Democratic Congress convention slated for today, Tuesday, April 14, 2026, is a shameful and cowardly abuse of public office.
“Let it be said without equivocation: coercing a private business owner to deny a lawfully registered opposition party the use of a venue is not governance. It is not politics. It is the naked conduct of a regime that has lost the argument, lost the people, and now reaches for the boot because it has nothing else left.
“The ADC has paid every fee. The ADC has signed every contract. The ADC has broken no law. Our only offence is that we are organising, we are growing, and we are preparing to retire this failed government at the ballot box in 2027.
“This is how democracies are strangled, not in a single dramatic blow, but in a thousand petty, vindictive acts against opposition parties, against free assembly, and against the sacred right of citizens to choose their own leaders. To the international community, and every democratic partner of Nigeria: take note of what is being done here tonight, and in whose name.
“We will not be intimidated. We will not be silenced. We will not bow to this creeping tyranny, and we will never bow to the petty tyrants behind it.
“The convention will hold. The ADC will rise. And Nigeria will rise with it. -AA”
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