A presidential aspirant of the African Democratic Congress, Prof Kingsley Moghalu, has resigned his membership of the party.
In a letter obtained by our correspondent on Monday, which was addressed to the party’s chairman, Okey Nwosu, Moghalu cited alleged infractions from the party’s presidential primary election as reason for leaving.
It would be recalled that the former presidential candidate of Young Progressive Party in 2019 general elections was defeated at the just-concluded primary election of the ADC in Abeokuta.
While the winner, Dumebi Kachikwu, scored 977 votes, Moghalu polled 589 votes to come second.
Moghalu’s resignation letter read in part, “I am writing to hand in my resignation of my membership of the African Democratic Congress, effective immediately.
“I have resigned because the process and conduct of the party’s presidential primary on June 8, 2022 at Abeokuta revealed a fundamental clash of values between me and your leadership of the party.
“Despite the circular you issued a few days to the primary committing the party to providing transportation and accommodation for delegates to and in Abeokuta, and which as we agreed would provide a level playing field for all the presidential aspirants, the party under your leadership failed to do so.
“Some aspirants, including myself, made donations to the party’s account as requested for this purpose. This failure, which appeared intentional, created room for massive abuses of the electoral process, including delegate capture and financial inducement of delegates.”
Moghalu, who didn’t disclose his next political move, blamed his loss to “cash and carry politics,” revealing that his former party which he joined in 2021 is not a credible alternative.
He added, “This is only one of the numerous inconsistencies and absence of transparency and predictability in the management of the party that I had progressively complained about.
“As you are well aware, I have consistently resisted pressures to join the All Progressives Congress or the Peoples Democratic Party precisely to avoid ‘cash-and-carry’ politics. For me to remain a member of the ADC therefore, after what thousands of party members participated in at Abeokuta, would be to endorse political corruption of a most obscene order.”
“I joined the ADC in October 2021 with the best of intentions. Since then, I have put my entire team to work on growing and improving the party, including raising the party’s visibility on all media platforms, recruiting more than 10,000 new members to the party, and providing new offices for various state chapters of the party at my expense.
“It is deeply regrettable that other inducements appear to have played more important roles in determining the outcome of the primary than loyalty to the party.”
~Source: Punch