The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Nentawe Yilwatda, has dismissed allegations by the 2027 presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Obi and other opposition leaders that the ruling party is responsible for the internal crises within opposition parties and encouraging defections to weaken political rivals before the 2027 elections.
NEWSNGR reports that Yilwatda, during an interview on Channels Television on Tuesday, said Peter Obi’s defection across political parties precedes the current administration and could not be blamed on the ruling party.
According to him, Peter Obi has been changing political parties since 2014 without any influence from the APC, and there is no plan to force him out of the NDC.
He said, “Nobody in APC chased Peter Obi out of PDP. Nobody from APC chased Obi out of the Labour Party. Nobody in APC chased him out of the Labour Party to ADC or chased him out of ADC again to NDC.
“He started moving from his party long before now, during the time of President Jonathan in 2014. It means that APC has been the person chasing him from 2015 till date, when we were even opposition?
“When he left Labour Party, he moved to ADC. He came to ADC, he discovered that he couldn’t get an automatic ticket. That’s why he left to NDC. And in NDC now, he has gotten his ticket.
“If anyone wanted to destabilise Obi, we would have stopped him from getting a ticket if we were the people doing it. But we don’t have that control.”
Yilwatda also dismissed claims that the APC was behind the crises in the Labour Party, African Democratic Congress and other opposition parties, describing the problems as self-inflicted.
He stated, “This is a group of people who have a self-inflicted wound. Every day, they move from party to party.”
