Dr Umar Ardo is the promoter of the All Democratic Alliance (ADA). In this interview, he speaks on the next line of action after the Federal High Court in Abuja dismissed his suit against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and his fight against the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), among other issues, ANAYO EZUGWU reports

With regards to ADA, the court has dismissed your matter to say that it was procedurally flawed and it was incompetent in terms of its presentation. What is next in your fight against the Nigerian Democratic Congress?

Actually, the Federal High Court dismissed our case on the basis of a preliminary objection raised by those two guys who joined us that we ought to have come through writ of summons and not through originating summons.

Now, the preliminary objection was raised by the joiners. They knew that we were there through originating summons, and they joined. So, our lawyers did not deem it fit to amend and then go through writ of summons. But, you see, I’m not a lawyer but the issue of preliminary objection is an issue of law. It’s not an issue of facts. For me, I just provide the facts, and then it’s the lawyers who will push it.

So, if there is any problem, then it is from the lawyer’s side. We are going to collect the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the judgement; look at it and then we will look whether we need to test its veracity at the Court of Appeal. Most likely, we are going to do so. I would like to finish what I started and I think we will go up to the Supreme Court to resolve this matter. With regards to the time, as I told you on this matter before, we are not registering ADA simply because of 2027.

There are going to be more elections. We want an alternative that is the right alternative, and we believe that ADA is the right alternative given the way we tried to register it. We bent backwards to fulfill each and every requirement of the Constitution, the Electoral Act and the Guidelines of INEC and the matter was not determined on its merit. It was determined on preliminary objection.

I want you to also understand that everything in life is in their dynamic opposite. If there is left, there is right. If there is up, there is down. If there is hot, there is cold

So, whether it is natural or artificial, they have dynamic opposites. If a court or if a judge wants to dismiss a matter, he will only look at the other side of that dynamics and then take that side, and I think that is what the honorable judge did.

It is seems there are factions in ADA. What is your real motive in what you’re doing because your party is not backing you?

You got it wrong. Actually, before our party made that press statement, we agreed in principle to make that statement in order to distinguish Dr. Umar Ardo and ADA. My opposition to the NDC is not on behalf of ADA. It is as a result of our effort to register the ADA that I personally got to know that NDC did not participate in the registration process.

The national publicity secretary made the statement based on what we agreed in principle, but we did not agree in the wordings. When they published it, I looked at it and said that the wordings were certainly not as we agreed, but no problem at that whatsoever.

You see, he will make this statement because he doesn’t know the facts with regards to the NDC. And it is also factually not true to say that just because you oppose NDC, you are opposing all the opposition parties. There are 21 registered political parties in the country now re and the only one that is governing is the APC. The one that I am opposing is the NDC. There are 19 more opposition political parties.

Why I do oppose the NDC? I need to explain that so that the castigation against me and the misunderstanding by a lot of Nigerians may be assuaged. Before you register a political party, the steps are – one, you form an association – so they formed an association, Nigerian Democratic Congress (NDC). Then you write a letter of intent to INEC and say to INEC that we have formed this association, desirous to be registered as a political party.

This is the name of the association;this is the acronym of the association, this is the logo of the association, kindly open the portal for us so that we apply in the portal by filling form EC15A. That is the form that you must fill if you want to register you. Now, NDC wrote this letter of intent to INEC.

The commission then wrote back to NDC and said, on this your registration intent, we cannot continue with it because your logo is similar to other political parties and political associations. The law says that if INEC writes you such a letter, within 14 days, you should go to court but NDC wrote back to INEC and said reconsider your position. INEC did not respond but after about a month or so, it wrote again.

It said we are giving you one week to reconsider. INEC did not respond but NDC picked this letter and went to court. With that letter, the court said NDC has fulfilled all the requirements of the Constitution, the Electoral Act and all the guidelines, which is not true.

You cannot be said to have been registered until you fill the form EC15 and upload the name of your party, its acronym, logo, constitution, manifesto and national executive members. You have to even pay a fee and get the receipt for INEC to give you the access code to access the portal and you have to upload it. You have to upload 29 documents for you to be attained that you have applied. NDC did not do that. NDC did not pay. NDC did not fill that form. NDC did not do anything.

NDC just took one letter to court and the court said you have fulfilled everything. NDC cannot mislead the court and beguile gullible Nigerians. INEC knows the truth. INEC knows that NDC did not apply, so the commission ought to have resisted and appealed when they came with that judgement. But INEC refused to appeal.

INEC just said we will not appeal and we will give them certificate and INEC went ahead to give them certificate. But the important thing to know is that NDC got this judgement on December 3, while the process was still going on. The visitation did not take place. The visitation took place on December 8 and 10.

We cannot pick and choose what to oppose and what to accept, when we know that what is wrong is wrong and what is right is right

That’s one week afterNDC had already gotten its judgement and is keeping it with INEC. INEC knew that the judgement was there but it kept quiet. The NDC kept quiet until the whole process finished and then in February INEC announced that it is registering NDC on the basis of court judgement. That cannot be right when some of us are breaking up to meet the requirements of INEC. Somebody got judgement with just one letter. So, this is why I oppose NDC and this is why I say even if all Nigerians will accept that, I will not accept because it was not registered within the law.

What’s your business with NDC registration; why don’t you leave INEC to fight its fight and why is it that after Peter Obi joined the party you started all of this?

A day after INEC announced NDC’s registration; I opposed it on February 6. So, it is not about Obi. What’s my business with Obi? What’s my business with Rabiu Kwankwaso?

And when I heard these facts, I don’t have Obi’s line to discuss with him directly but I communicated to all those who have been close to him, telling them to tell him that if they are considering going to another political party, there are other political parties to go to, not NDC because this is the problem NDC is facing. I also sat down with Kwankwaso and I told him.

When I also called him a day or two before they move in, I also told him that these are the problems that this NDC is facing. But they refused, they went and entered. So, the fact that they entered doesn’t mean that it has changed the situation.

The situation is as bad as it has always been. So, I have no motive whatsoever other than to stop a national fraud. You cannot come through this way and expect people to vote for you.

Some Nigerians believe that you are a busybody intervening in NDC matter. What do you stand to lose and how do you cure damages because of NDC registration?

Let me ask you; when the tribunal sanctioned INEC’s 2023 elections and said that it was right, did Nigerians complain? Did Nigerians say that INEC was wrong? Did Nigerians castigate the judiciary? It is the same thing.

The judiciary has messed up and INEC refused to appeal to this and INEC became complicit. So we have been accusing INEC of complicity in so many things. Why are we not going to accuse INEC on this complicity? You know, we cannot have double standards. We cannot pick and choose what to oppose and what to accept, when we know that what is wrong is wrong and what is right is right.