The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has challenged the All Progressives Congress (APC) to publicly release its membership register, dismissing the ruling party’s claim of having 11 million members and projected votes for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu ahead of the 2027 election.
The opposition party also maintained that it is currently the only political party conducting a transparent and credible presidential primary process.
Speaking with journalists in Abuja on Monday during the collation of results from the ADC presidential primaries, Chairman of the party’s Presidential Primary Election Committee, Chief Ikechi Emenike, said the party had demonstrated a firm commitment to internal democracy and transparency in its candidate selection process.
He noted that all qualified aspirants were given equal opportunity to canvass support from members nationwide, without manipulation or imposition.
“The ADC has adopted a credible democratic process that allows every qualified aspirant to present their vision and earn support across the country,” Emenike said.
He criticised the APC over what he described as exaggerated figures and questionable electoral arithmetic.
“As you can see, we know how to count properly. We are ADC; we will not inflate our registration numbers to mislead Nigerians. When counting votes, we will not jump from three to 30 or from 500 to 1,000,” he added.
Also speaking, the ADC National Publicity Secretary, Malam Bolaji Abdullahi, described the APC’s claim of 11 million registered members as “false and misleading,” urging the ruling party to make its membership register available for public scrutiny.
“We are proud to be the only political party conducting presidential primaries at this time. None of the aspirants can say with certainty that they will emerge as the flagbearer because the process is transparent. The winner will be announced tomorrow afternoon,” Abdullahi stated.
He disclosed that the ADC had submitted a verified membership figure of 3.4 million to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), stressing that the party had no reason to manipulate its records.
“We have 3.4 million registered members already submitted to INEC. We do not need to inflate figures like the APC. If they claim 11 million members, they should publish the register. Those claims are simply not credible,” he said.
Addressing reports of factional leadership and parallel presidential candidates within the party, Abdullahi dismissed the claims, insisting that there is no legally recognised faction within the ADC.
“I am surprised that some still refer to a faction. There is none in ADC. If you check the INEC portal, Senator David Mark and Rauf Aregbesola are recognised as the party’s leadership.
“Whatever gathering others held was merely for their own purposes and has no bearing on the ADC,” he added.