Human rights activist and former presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, has alleged that all opposition parties in Nigeria, except his African Action Congress, are under the influence and control of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Speaking on Rubbin’ Minds, a Channels Television talk show aired yesterday, Sowore claimed that most of Nigeria’s opposition parties were deliberately created or co-opted by the APC as “specialpurpose vehicles” for political convenience.

According to him, the AAC, which he founded in 2018 remains the only genuine opposition among the 18 registered political parties in the country.

Sowore said: “What we found out in our little research is that most of the parties that are left, apart from AAC, are parties that were created by the major parties.

They call them feeder parties or special-purpose vehicles.” He alleged that these smaller parties are often funded during election seasons by the APC to serve strategic interests, such as filing legal challenges that can be manipulated later in the ruling party’s favour.

Sowore explained: “Sometimes, some of the candidates or the parties are meant to help them with legal challenges.

“So, they all go and challenge the election, and whomever has won would approach either the opposition party or the smaller parties and settle them. Everybody gets paid and walks away.”