Family Feud in Obi’s NDC as OK Movement Hits Back: ‘We Don’t Need Your Validation’
By Reporter
Fresh cracks have emerged within the political family backing the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential ticket as the Obi-Kwankwaso (OK) Movement has rejected the party’s attempt to distance itself from the group’s 59-member Presidential Campaign Council.
The latest confrontation followed the NDC’s disowning of the campaign council unveiled by the OK Movement to mobilise support for the party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and his running mate, Rabiu Kwankwaso, ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The NDC National Chairman, Senator Moses Cleopas, had said the campaign council did not emanate from the party and urged the public and media to disregard it. He also warned that individuals, candidates and support groups were not authorised to constitute or announce campaign structures in the party’s name without approval from its National Working Committee.
But the OK Movement has fired back, insisting that it is an independent political organisation with its own leadership, structure and internal processes.
In a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday, the movement’s National Secretary, Saadatu Sani, said the group recognised the constitutional and statutory authority of political parties but maintained that its independent organisational activities did not require the personal approval of individual NDC officials.
“The OK Movement does not require the personal validation or approval of any individual before exercising its legitimate organisational functions in accordance with established processes,” Sani said.
The movement also demanded an apology from Cleopas over statements it considered defamatory and rejected what it described as attempts at intimidation.
Sani said the OK Movement would continue to campaign for Obi and Kwankwaso, as well as NDC candidates across the country in areas where the movement decides to support them.
She stressed, however, that such support did not make the movement a subordinate structure of the NDC.
The dispute centres on the boundary between the formal authority of the NDC and the organisational independence of groups supporting its candidates. While the party maintains that campaign structures operating in its name require its approval, the OK Movement says it is free to organise independently while supporting the NDC ticket.
The OK Movement said it had developed a nationwide grassroots structure and claimed an internal database representing approximately 2.5 million registered members and coordinators. It also maintained that it was not merely a temporary support group created for the 2027 election, but a movement with a longer-term political vision.
The development has opened a new internal front around the Obi-Kwankwaso ticket, with the disagreement raising questions about how the NDC and its affiliated support structures will coordinate their campaign activities ahead of the 2027 election.
