*National assembly candidate alleges party leadership after his life
Sunday Aborisade in Abuja and Tony Icheku in Owerri
A fresh crisis is looming within the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) following a sharp disagreement between the party leadership and the Obi-Kwankwaso (OK) Movement, over the authority of the movement to organise and mobilise support for the party’s candidates ahead of the 2027 general election.
The latest confrontation followed the movement’s rejection of the position expressed on Saturday by the NDC National Chairman, Senator Cleopas Moses, over a 59-member Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) unveiled by the support group.
While the NDC had already dissociated itself from the council and maintained that only the party leadership could constitute and announce its campaign structures, the OK Movement has fired back, insisting that it remained an independent political movement with its own leadership, organisational structure, ideology and internal processes.
The movement also demanded that Moses withdraw statements it considered defamatory and tender an apology to the organisation and its National Director-General, Hon. John Ozyl Ughulu.
The latest development has widened what was initially a disagreement over the status of a campaign council into a broader dispute over the relationship between the NDC as a political party and the independent movement supporting its presidential ticket.
In a statement signed by its National Secretary, Saadatu Sani, the OK Movement said its decision to support the NDC candidates did not amount to submitting its organisational structure to the control of the party.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the OK Movement recognises the supremacy of political parties within their constitutional and statutory sphere. We also recognise the importance of working with the NDC Party and supporting its candidates.
“However, the OK Movement is an independent political movement with its own leadership, organisational structure, ideology and internal processes,” it stated in part.
National Assembly Candidate Alleges Party Leadership After His Life
Meanwhgile, the NDC House of Representative candidate for Ideato North and South Federal Constituency,
Mr Ceejay Henry Ezebuiro, has acccused the South-East zonal leaders of the party of making death threats to his life if he refused to give up the ticket of the party or pays the sum of N150 million to them.
The leaders, he claimed, included its National Vice-Chairman, Teddy Obe, National Secretary, Ikenna Morgan, Chief Martin Agbaso and former Imo State governor, Achike Udenwa.
”National officers of my party, NDC, mostly from the South-East have made plans to eliminate me and attribute it to the current insecurity challenge because I emerged victorious in the May 28, 2026 National Assembly primary,” Ezebuiro told a select group of newsmen in Owerri.
Ezebuiro, whose name is already on INEC list as the NDC candidate further dismissed the fact that he has been dragged to High Court by one Uchenna Omelonye, his co-contender for the seat.
He described the Court action
as being technically in defect, having been filed 67 days after the primary.
Ezebuiro narrated that his ordeal began ”Immediately after I was announced winner of the Ideato North and South Federal Constituency ticket.
“I was summoned before a chieftain of the party, Chief Martin Agbaso, Teddy Obe and Babatunde Alli, the National Vice chairman, South-West and also chairman of the 5-man National Assembly Primary Organising Committee.
“They urged me to surrender my ticket to a certain multi-millionaire
businessman from the state who has promised to support the party financially if the House of Reps ticket is conceded to him or his crony.
“They gave me an option that should I insist on keeping the ticket, I must pay the equivalence of N100 million to the party coffers in order to prove my capacity to prosecute the election. After hours of appeals and cajoling they reluctant agreed to accept the N50 million I was willing to offer.
“However to my greatest surprise, they insisted that the whole money must be paid into a private account rather than the party’s
account and that the money must be in foreign currency. I reluctantly paid the sum of N50 million – $10 cash and N40 million into the into the personal account they provided.
Ezebuiro, who is based in the USA said his mission in politics is to fight the systemic corruption and criminality bedevilling Nigeria, lamenting that, ”NDC candidates are bleeding. There is no democracy in NDC, the party claiming the want a better Nigeria.”