The Nigeria Democratic Congress moved Saturday to disown a 59-member presidential campaign council announced days earlier by the Obi-Kwankwaso Movement, warning that no individual or group holds authority to constitute campaign structures in the party’s name without formal approval.
NDC National Chairman Moses Cleopas issued the disavowal in a statement three days after the movement’s director-general, John Ughulu, unveiled the council, which named zonal and state coordinators alongside directors overseeing mobilization, women’s affairs, strategy, security and legal affairs across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones, the Federal Capital Territory and all 36 states.
“The leadership of our party, the Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, has noted with concern a publication credited to John Ughulu announcing a Presidential Campaign Council under the guise of ‘OK Movement,'” Cleopas said, adding that the party “dissociates itself in totality” from the announcement and that it “did not emanate from the party and should be disregarded by the public and the media.”
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Sourcing gathered by The Eastern Updates indicates the movement’s council had also listed the group’s national secretary, Saadatu Sani, among its campaign leadership, alongside directors for grassroots mobilization, contact and engagement, special duties, procurement, information technology, strategy and planning, and administration — a structure that mirrors the scale of a formal party campaign operation rather than an informal support group.
Cleopas argued that candidates running under the NDC banner remain bound by party discipline regardless of any parallel structures built around them. “All candidates of the party must appreciate that they are not running as independent candidates. They are products of the party and remain subject to the authority and discipline of the party,” he said, adding that only the party’s National Working Committee can authorize the formation of a campaign council.
The chairman went further than simply disowning the announcement, confirming disciplinary action against Ughulu over what the party described as his conduct during the Lagos State primary election and a pattern of disregard for party authority. “For this act of affront and his excesses during the primary election in Lagos State, and for his repeated disregard for party authority, the party is constrained to enforce disciplinary measures against Mr Ughulu,” Cleopas said, adding that the matter had been referred to the party’s internal disciplinary organ.
Ughulu, reached for comment, rejected the party’s framing of the dispute and defended the movement’s independence from party control. He described the OK Movement as operating outside the party’s chain of command despite backing its candidates. “The OK Movement, just like other political groups and movements, is not under the control of the party. We work for the candidates, who are our principals,” he told reporters, signaling the group intends to continue operating its own structures regardless of the chairman’s objection.
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Cleopas struck a more conciliatory note toward support groups generally, distinguishing the party’s objection to Ughulu’s specific announcement from its broader relationship with grassroots organizations backing its candidates. “The party recognises and deeply appreciates the contributions of all support groups and encourages their continued support,” he said, while cautioning that such groups “should not see themselves as alternative party structures or parallel organs of the party.”
The chairman also used the statement to warn the Independent National Electoral Commission against repeating what he characterized as excuses offered during the 2023 presidential and National Assembly elections regarding technical failures at collation centers, saying Nigerians would not tolerate another claim of a network glitch in the 2027 cycle. He urged voters to remain vigilant at polling units and to be prepared to provide hotspot connectivity to election officials if similar claims resurface on election day.
The dispute over the campaign council comes as the NDC continues positioning itself ahead of the 2027 general elections, with the party’s public disputes over structure and discipline unfolding alongside broader jostling among opposition figures and movements over who controls campaign machinery heading into the vote.
The friction also lands against a backdrop of wider tension within Nigeria’s opposition coalition, where support groups organized around individual candidates have periodically clashed with formal party structures over messaging, funding and control of grassroots mobilization efforts. Party officials in similar disputes elsewhere have argued that unsanctioned campaign structures risk confusing voters about who legitimately speaks for a candidate, a concern Cleopas’s statement echoed in insisting that only the National Working Committee can authorize a campaign council bearing the party’s name.
