For The Record

Following the deleting of the names of Sen. David Mark and Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, National Chairman and National Secretary, respectively, of main opposition African Democratic Congress (ADC) by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from its portal, citing court disputes, the party's leadership met today in Abuja and reacted. Below, Sen. Mark’s full speech titled 'THIS ATTACK ON DEMOCRACY WILL NOT STAND': “On behalf of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, and lovers of democracy, I welcome you all to this world press conference. “Since 1999, Nigeria has been under democratic rule. After 27 years, we thought we could proudly celebrate the…

Today, we gather joyously as a congregation of victorious men and women whose badge of honour remains the umbrella of the Peoples Democratic Party. Standing firmly with the umbrella, we overcame a tragic crisis of leadership, so huge that it threatened to destroy our beautiful party; together we fought against proponents of ethnic and geographic divisions; we trounced the naysayers who abandoned the core values upon which the party was built and in the process, arrested the party from the vice grip of those who abhor internal democracy and shun adherence to the rule of law. More importantly, we fought…