The leadership of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) has rejected a 59-member presidential campaign council announced by the OK Movement, a support group backing the party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and his running mate, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso.
NDC National Chairman, Cleopas Moses, said in a statement on Saturday that the campaign council was not authorised by the party and should be disregarded by the public and the media.
The OK Movement had announced the 59-member council on Thursday, comprising zonal and state coordinators as well as directors responsible for mobilisation, women’s affairs, strategy, security, legal affairs and other areas.
The group also named its Director-General, John Ughulu, and National Secretary, Saadatu Sani, as the Director-General and Secretary of the campaign council respectively.
In a statement following the announcement, Sani said the movement was established to mobilise Nigerians around what it described as the possibility of building a more prosperous, united and functional Nigeria.
However, Moses said the NDC was not involved in the constitution of the council and had not authorised the announcement.
“The party hereby dissociates itself in totality from the said OK Movement PCC announcement. It did not emanate from the party and should be disregarded by the public and the media,” he said.
The NDC chairman said candidates contesting under the party’s platform remained subject to the authority and discipline of the party.
“All candidates of the party must appreciate that they are not running as independent candidates,” Moses said.
“They are products of the party and remain subject to the authority and discipline of the party.
“Therefore, only the party’s leadership can constitute and announce a Presidential Campaign Council.”
Moses warned party members, candidates and support groups against creating or announcing campaign structures in the name of the NDC without prior approval from the National Working Committee (NWC).
“Henceforth, no individual or group is authorised to announce, constitute, or publish any campaign council, structure, or organ in the name of the party without prior approval from the National Working Committee (NWC),” he said.
He acknowledged the contributions of support groups to the party’s activities but said such organisations must not operate as alternative structures of the NDC.
“While the party will continue to work collaboratively with all support groups, such groups should not see themselves as alternative party structures or parallel organs of the party,” Moses said.
The chairman also urged party members and support groups with grievances to use the party’s internal mechanisms for resolving disputes rather than taking their complaints into the public space.
Moses further disclosed that Ughulu would be referred to the appropriate disciplinary organ of the party over what he described as “his excesses during the primary election in Lagos State” and “repeated disregard for party authority”.
The development places the NDC leadership and the OK Movement at odds over who has the authority to establish and announce campaign structures for Obi and Kwankwaso ahead of the election.
