Bolaji Abdullahi is the National Publicity Secretary of the African Democratic Congress (ADC). In this interview, he speaks on selective prosecution by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) and the plot to weaken opposition voices ahead of the 2027 elections, among other issues, ANAYO EZUGWU reports
Is Malam El-Rufai and Abubakar Malami completely innocent of the allegations against them, or is the ADC defending individuals before the facts are even established?
We are not in a position to pronounce on whether they are guilty or not. What we are concerned about is the selective nature of what you call the investigation of corruption practices itself. I mean, we have EFCC and the ICPC, two national institutions funded by public money, to probe and investigate corruption charges and prosecute people for corruption practices but they appear to be only efficient and effective when opposition figures are involved.
And we have repeated, when we say the kind of things we say, we are concerned that national institutions are being turned into partisan agents, because all you need to do is to look at the other side, the side of the government, and see the kind of individuals in the rank of the APC, people who still have cases in court, people who have been investigated in the past but suddenly, the moment they join the ruling party, they use their broom to sweep all this under the carpet.
So, we are not saying that Malam ElRufai is guilty or not guilty, or Abubakar Malami is guilty or not guilty. We are concerned about the bastardization of national institutions and weaponization of these institutions against opposition figures. This is our concern and we are saying that there is due process to all this.
You can’t go and wait for people at the airport and claim that what you are doing is investigating corruption when you have not served them notice and find that they are running away from investigation. You cannot release people after detaining them for days and refusing to grant them bail. Then when you are pressured to grant them bail, eventually you pick them up for funding terrorism.
So, you begin to ask yourself: Is this about fight against corruption, or is this directed at people because of the kind of politics they play and the kind of role they play in the national space? So, this is the concern that we have.
If the ADC remains resolute in calling out the EFCC, the ICPC and the APC for selective prosecution, one wonders if the EFCC opens a case against your members, whether your default position is always to say witch-hunt, or whether there are circumstances where you would admit wrongdoing within your ranks?
No, not at all! I mean, I’ve not said anything to suggest that these individuals are guilty or they are innocent. I mean, anyone who has had opportunity to serve in the public office must be prepared to render account of his stewardship or her stewardship. ADC is not saying that people should not be held accountable for the role they have played and what they have done in the past. No, that’s not what we are saying.
Members of the APC should not allow their desperation to lead this country into a crisis that can be avoided
But at the same time, we know the possibility that this can just offer the right pretext for people to witch hunt opposition. So, to what extent do we know that what is going on is genuine commitment to fighting corruption or for demanding accountability, or it’s just excuse or pretext to witch-hunt political opposition figures?
That’s why we say all we need to do is to look at the terrain generally and look at all the people who have served in this country at various levels over the years and ask ourselves: Is this blanket investigation or is it a selective investigation?
Isn’t there a risk by framing virtually every investigation as political, you are undermining genuine anti-corruption efforts in Nigeria, and if you say that the ADC stands for accountability, why should Nigerians trust a party now rallying around two of the most controversial figures from past administrations?
No, I don’t know how you arrive at the conclusion that these are two of the most controversial figures in the past administration because there are people, who are currently in this government, who also played a lead role in the previous administration, and they are not being investigated. There are people who have been investigated and suddenly their cases disappeared, and we no longer hear anything.
There are people who have been arraigned in courts after investigation, and they are suddenly turned up in other spaces as emissaries of the ruling party. And the point we are saying, the anchor for our concern is this selective investigation. If these individuals on our party are guilty, let the court pronounce them guilty.
Let them be subjected to the due process of the law, and let the court find them guilty. If the courts find them guilty, we are not going to sit here and say, no, they have been persecuted. But until the court pronounces them guilty, the manner you go about arresting them, the manner you go about bringing them to investigation is consequential on what happens eventually.
ADC is facing a deregistration case in court. Does that suggest that the ADC has failed to meet constitutional thresholds? You see, there is no case to this. Who is the person instituting this case?
The people instituting this case call themselves Forum of Members of the National Assembly but we know that the individual at the head of this. We know where he works. He works with the Chief of Staff to the President or he used to work with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas. So, we know where this is coming from. And we know it is part of their game plan to complete the decimation of the opposition parties.
So it’s not going to work. But talking about whether we meet constitutional threshold, what is the constitutional threshold? That you must win at least 25 per cent of votes cast in the presidential election. You must win at least one House of Assembly or one House of Representatives seat. ADC met all these requirements in the last general election.
And if you are saying that it’s about the number of House of Representatives or senators we have, of course, you know how many senators we now have. You see, this doesn’t make sense at all. I mean, these are people who are just desperately throwing everything at ADC, including the frying pan and the kitchen because they have become jittery with the kind of reception that Nigerians have given the ADC.
They thought they have destroyed all opposition parties, given what they did to the other political parties. Now, to their dismay, ADC is waxing stronger every day, and that’s why they are doing everything through cognition. But we are not bothered about this at all. They’ve gone to court, so the case is in court and we are already there. So, there is no problem at all. We are not concerned at all.
The plaintiffs are saying that the ADC did not secure 25 per cent of the vote in any state in the last presidential election. And that it did not win any seat in the August 2025 by-elections conducted by INEC, adding that the outcome fell below the minimum legal threshold and that according to the law, having failed to meet the requirements of the Constitution and the Electoral Act that the ADC should be deregistered. Don’t you think that they have a point?
They absolutely have no point. If we are going to play strictly by the letters of the law, we spent time looking at this, they have absolutely no point. But like I said, the case is in court. And we are not going to try this case here. We are going to meet at the court. But I’m telling our members that there is absolutely no reason to be worried.
The most important point, there is the legal side of it. There is also the political side of it. A government that is determined to destroy the opposition rank will do anything, including hijacking the court. I’m not trying to preempt anything. But we are saying that if this government thinks they can destroy, remove all opposition elements. ADC at the moment remains the only option left for Nigerians.
Government should not think that they can remove ADC, then Nigerians will give up and say, now we can follow APC, we have no option. I think they should be very careful not to cause trouble. Already the country is in a bad place with all kinds of things happening, but we don’t want to add to this. So, members of the APC should not allow their desperation to lead this country into a crisis that can be avoided.
If the court rules against you, will you accept the judgment or argue that the judiciary is being weaponized against you?
You make it sound as if there is no basis to make such conclusion or to claim that the judiciary is being hijacked. And I don’t want to be preemptive. And that’s why I say I don’t want to go into the substance of the case.
But what I’m saying is that the judiciary that you know is the judiciary that has been part of the problem of this democracy rather than part of the solution. So, it will not be out of place to make such conclusions when the time arrives. But what we are saying is that strictly on the letters of the law, and let the lawyers discuss this, let the courts discuss this, strictly on the letters of the law, we don’t have anything to worry about.
On a more hopeful note, you set up a highpowered committee recently to draft your manifesto and all the ethics. How’s that going?
It’s going very well. It’s a lot of work. We have 11 subcommittees coming out of that. They are working day and night because they have only 12 weeks. Very soon, we are going to get the report out. For people who have continuously asked us what is going to be the difference between the ADC and the ruling party, by the time we come out with our manifesto, people will see clearly. Nigerians will see clearly why we represent better alternative to what they currently have and that’s why we are doing this.
