EROMOSELE EBHOMELE
The Alliance for Democracy, AD, one of the many political parties in Nigeria, serving as surrogates of the ruling party, on Tuesday expelled its presidential candidate, Rafiu Salau, for the 2015 general elections and adopted the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan as its flag bearer for the election which holds on 28 March.
Salau was the National Secretary of the Alliance for Democracy before becoming the presidential candidate of the party.
However, the party claimed that Salau was never endorsed as the party’s flagbearer for the presidential election but that he was only made the candidate by a faction of the party.
The party’s decision was taken at its National Executive Council, NEC, meeting held in Lagos.
The party said the decision was taken after it ratified the report of disciplinary committee that found Salau culpable of anti-party activities. Salau had been suspended for alleged anti-party activities which included claiming that he is the party’s presidential candidate and being rude to the National Chairman of the party.
National Chairman of AD, Senator Mojisoluwa Akinfenwa, said after the NEC meeting that with the adoption of President Jonathan, the AD machinery and structures across the country was available for the President to take advantage of.
Noting that the decision to endorse Jonathan did not come easy as the party had to critically compare his record with that of General Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress, APC, he added: “we can affirm that Jonathan has demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that he is a true democrat.”
Akinfenwa stressed that the AD did not see General Muhammadu Buhari as a true representative of patriotic, detribalised northern people.
He also said the APC cannot change the tide of the country because its leaders had no moral conscience and that “we are alarmed at the speed at which Buhari’s quest to become President of Nigeria has almost turned from extremism to fanaticism. He contested in 2011 and Nigerians rejected him.
“If Buhari becomes the president of this country, God forbid, it will facilitate Tinubu’s quest to conquer and acquire Nigeria as he did in Lagos and this may be the end of true democracy in Nigeria.”
Akinfenwa said Salau was expelled after 41 of the NEC members voted in favour of the expulsion while two voted against.