The Publicity Secretary of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, Bolaji Abdullahi, has said he is unhappy over the decision of the former governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, and his Kano counterpart, Rabiu Kwankwaso, to dump the party.

In an interview with Arise TV on Monday, Bolaji said Obi and Kwankwaso’s defection was a setback for the ADC.

He, however, said their resignation from the party gave the ADC relief to focus on what it ought to do.

He said, “Personally, I’m not happy that Peter Obi and Kwankwaso left the ADC, but in a way, it’s a bit of a relief.

“Is this a setback? The answer is yes. Is it a fatal blow? The answer is no.”

The Eastern Updates  reports that Obi and Kwankwaso formally dumped the ADC for the Nigerian Democratic Congress (NDC) on Sunday.

Peter Obi has changed parties again, and this time he brought Rabiu Kwankwaso with him. The two opposition heavyweights formally joined the Nigeria Democratic Congress on Sunday in Abuja, collecting membership cards amid supporter chants and the kind of choreographed optimism that has accompanied each of Obi’s previous political relocations — from APGA to PDP to Labour to ADC, and now to a party most Nigerians were not closely watching until Sunday afternoon changed that.

Obi’s explanation was consistent with what he has said at each previous departure: the crisis follows him rather than originates with him. He accused the federal government of deliberately seeding instability inside opposition platforms, engineering litigation and internal conflict to keep credible challengers perpetually distracted. “The government of today has ensured that they put up crisis upon crisis, which led to several lawsuits in our party that made us abandon those parties,” he told those gathered at Sunday’s reception. He described the ADC, which he had joined only last December, as a repeat of the Labour Party experience — same dysfunction, different letterhead.

Read also: Peter Obi, Kwankwaso Defection Still Under Probability – NDC

What drew him to the NDC, he said, was a simple promise: no court cases. National leader and former Bayelsa governor Seriake Dickson had apparently guaranteed as much. Obi treated that guarantee as the primary selling point, pleading openly with members not to litigate internal disputes. “We want to build a party. Please don’t come here with cases. Let there be peace,” he urged. The appeal was equal parts political manifesto and desperate prayer.

Kwankwaso brought ideological alignment and organizational muscle. He said he and Obi had met Dickson and found shared positions on education, youth empowerment and security. He also noted that the NDC’s membership registration closes May 6, and used the occasion to rally his Kwankwasiyya movement and former NNPP members to register immediately. The political infrastructure Kwankwaso commands in the Northwest gives the new arrangement something Obi’s previous platforms often lacked — a northern anchor with demonstrable grassroots depth.

Dickson received them with the enthusiasm of a party leader who understands exactly what two nationally recognized names do for an organization’s visibility. “Both of you are personifications of the crowd,” he said, gesturing at the supporters who had shown up despite the visit being unannounced publicly. He described Obi and Kwankwaso as “part of the biggest brands in our political history” and promised the party would provide the stable platform they had been denied elsewhere.

The Eastern Updates