One of the leading figures of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Salihu Mohammed Lukman, has suspended his membership of the party and the opposition coalition, directly accusing former Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, of orchestrating the hostile treatment and political marginalisation that forced him to quit.
In a message addressed to the National Chairman of the ADC, Senator David Mark, and copied to coalition leaders, Lukman explained that his decision followed months of what he described as sustained hostility from El-Rufai and his political associates over the leadership and direction of the party in Kaduna State.
According to him, “This may come to you as a disappointment. I am very sorry. I just can’t continue to bear the painful hostile treatment I keep getting from some leaders from Kaduna, especially Mallam Nasir.”
He claimed that he had been reduced “to the status of a bastard” within a coalition he had worked hard to build, alleging that decisions concerning leadership representation in Kaduna were being manipulated to sideline him.
The development is likely to heighten concerns over the alliance’s internal cohesion, particularly in Kaduna, a state considered strategically important to the coalition’s electoral calculations. It marks one of the most serious public cracks within the ADC-led opposition coalition ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Lukman, a former National Vice Chairman (North-West) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), said he had devoted more than a year to reconciling and uniting opposition leaders in Kaduna, only to become the target of what
