Kingsley Moghalu, an aspirant for the 2023 presidency, on Monday, announced his resignation from the African Democratic Congress (ADC), over alleged manipulation of the party’s presidential primary, held in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
The former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) deputy governor, in a letter to Ralphs Nwosu, the national chairman of ADC, said his resignation was with “immediate effect”
Kingsley Moghalu had last week lost the ADC presidential primary election, to Dumebi Kachikwu, founder of Roots Television, who defeated him to emerge as the 2023 presidential flag bearer of the ADC.
Kachikwu, who is the younger brother to former minister of state for petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, polled a total of 977 votes to defeat Kingsley Moghalu, who came second with 589 votes, while Chukwuka Monye came third with 339 votes.
Moghalu said he was resigning from the party because the process and conduct of the party’s presidential primary on June 8, 2022, in Abeokuta revealed a fundamental clash of values between him and the leadership of the party.
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“Despite the circular, you issued a few days to the primary committing the party to provide transportation and accommodation for delegates to and in Abeokuta, and which as we agreed would provide a level playing for all the presidential aspirants, the party under your leadership failed to do so.
He alleged that “some of the aspirants, including myself, made donations to the ADC account as requested by the party for this purpose, adding that “this failure, which appeared intentional, created room for massive abuses of the electoral process, including delegate capture and financial inducement of delegates.
“This is only one of the numerous inconsistencies and the 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 APC or the PDP 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 Abeokuta, would be to endorse political corruption of a most obscene order.”
Moghalu, who noted that he joined the ADC in October 2021 with the best of intentions, added that 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.
He, therefore, described as “deeply regrettable” that “other inducements appear to have played more important roles in determining the outcome of the primary than loyalty to the party”
