2027: ‘We Don’t Need Your Validation’ – Crisis Brews As NDC, Obi-Kwankwaso Group Clash

The Obi-Kwankwaso Movement, popularly known as the OK Movement, has called on the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) to immediately apologise to it over statements by the party’s National Chairman, Senator Moses Cleopas.

Naija News reports that the NDC leadership had distanced itself from the 59-member presidential campaign council constituted by the OK Movement on Thursday to mobilise support for the party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and his running mate, Rabiu Kwankwaso.

The NDC national chairman, Cleopas Moses, in a statement on Saturday, said the campaign council list did not emanate from the party and should be disregarded.

Moses said the NDC was not involved in constituting the campaign council.

“The party hereby dissociates itself in totality from the said OK Movement PCC announcement. It did not emanate from the party and should be disregarded by the public and the media,” he said.

Moses noted that the party’s candidates were subject to the authority and discipline of the NDC, adding that only the party’s leadership could constitute and announce a presidential campaign council.

Reacting in a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday, the movement’s National Secretary, Saadatu Sani, warned that it would not be intimidated or surrender its independence.

Sani insisted that it remained an independent political organisation with its own leadership, structure and internal processes.

The group described the position of the NDC chairman as unfortunate and said it reflected a misunderstanding of the movement’s character and independence.

She said, “The OK Movement does not engage in such politics. We will not be dragged into a politics of personal insults, intimidation or defamatory exchanges. We will continue to educate rather than abuse. We will continue to defend the principles upon which this movement was established.

“The NDC national chairman is therefore called upon to withdraw the statements considered defamatory and to tender an immediate apology to the OK Movement and to our Director General, Hon. John Ughulu.”

The movement said it recognised the supremacy of political parties within their constitutional and statutory spheres and would campaign for Obi and Kwankwaso as well as NDC candidates that it resolves to support across the country.

“We will campaign for the presidential and vice-presidential candidates of the party. We will campaign for candidates of the NDC Party across the country where the movement has resolved to support them.

“But we do not require the personal validation or approval of any individual before exercising our legitimate organisational functions,” Sani said.

She said OK movement had developed a nationwide grassroots structure with an internal database representing approximately 2.5 million registered members and coordinators.

She emphasised that the movement was not a temporary support group created for the 2027 elections but an organisation with a long-term political vision.