The All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council has accused the African Democratic Congress (ADC) of owing its workers more than 12 months’ salaries, urging Nigerians to reject the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and its other candidates in the 2027 general elections.
The council’s spokesperson, Dele Alake, made the call in a statement on Monday, questioning the ADC’s capacity to manage the country’s affairs if the party could not meet its obligations to its own employees.
Alake said the development has exposed the emptiness and insincerity of those parading themselves as new saviours.
He described as “wicked and reprehensible” the alleged refusal by the ADC National Working Committee, led by Senator David Mark and Rauf Aregbesola as chairman and secretary respectively, to pay party workers who rely on salaries for their daily needs.
The statement read, “We find it unconscionable that a political party that has made many grandiose promises to hoodwink Nigerians owes its workers for more than 12 months. Owing staff who come to work every day and who rely on the salaries for their daily sustenance is wicked and reprehensible.
“With this development, Nigerians can now see the emptiness and insincerity of those parading themselves as ‘new saviours’.
“We have clearly stated that ADC leaders and their presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, do not mean well and can do nothing for our country. Their desperation for power is driven by personal aggrandisement and venomous ill will against President Bola Tinubu. A party that cannot pay its cleaners and workforce cannot be entrusted with our country’s affairs.
“Atiku Abubakar, the ADC’s leader and Presidential candidate, has a reputation for owing his employees. While he regularly junkets to the UAE, staff at his Gotel Communication and other businesses also went months without pay and staged protests over unpaid salaries and other benefits.
“The record of the ADC General Secretary, Rauf Aregbesola, on paying workers’ salaries and pensioners in Osun State, where he was a governor for 8 years, was abysmal.
“As governor, he mismanaged the state’s finances to the point that he could not pay workers. His government thus introduced quarter-salary and, at times, half-salary payments. As for pensioners, he abandoned them for more than four years. Many died because they could not afford the basics of life.
“We are therefore not surprised that ADC, harbouring birds of the same feather, cannot pay its workers’ salaries.
“We are sounding a warning to Nigerians and working people now: reject ADC. Reject Atiku Abubakar and reject all ADC candidates in the next general elections. They do not have the interest of our country and our people at heart.
“A party that aspires to govern Nigeria and which cannot be trusted with something as basic as the management of its own affairs and the welfare of its workforce should be rejected by Nigerians.”
