– DEMANDS ARREST, PROSECUTION OF DEREGISTERED PARTY OPERATORS FOR FRAUD
Mazi Franklin Ngoforo, Executive Director of the Civic Action for Democracy (CAD), has dismissed the Imo Leaders Thought (ILT) as a fake organization and launched a blistering counterattack against the operators of the Action Peoples Party, describing them as merchants who have crossed the red line and should face immediate prosecution by anti-graft agencies for collecting money from unsuspecting members of the public under false pretenses.
Responding to allegations by ILT that Governor Hope Uzodimma recruited him to destabilize APP and frustrate Hon. Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere’s re-election bid, Ngoforo characterized the accusations as desperate attempts by cornered fraudsters to divert attention from their criminal enterprise.
In a strongly worded statement released in Abuja on Thursday, the CAD chief insisted that the exposure of APP’s illegal status is not political vendetta but a patriotic duty to save Nigerian democracy from an elaborate conspiracy designed to destabilize the 2027 general elections and trigger constitutional crisis.
Ngoforo specifically accused APP’s operators of perpetrating massive fraud against innocent Nigerians who have purchased nomination forms, expression of interest forms, membership cards, and made financial donations to a political party that legally ceased to exist in February 2020.
“These people have been running a criminal enterprise for nearly six years, collecting money from unsuspecting politicians and ordinary citizens who believe they are joining a legitimate political party,” Ngoforo stated. “They have sold gubernatorial nomination forms, House of Assembly forms, Senate forms, and House of Representatives forms worth millions of naira knowing fully well that APP has no legal existence and cannot participate in any election. This is fraud, pure and simple, and it is punishable under Nigerian law.”
The CAD director called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), and the Nigerian Police Force to immediately arrest and prosecute APP’s leadership for obtaining money by false pretenses, a criminal offense under Section 1(1) of the Advanced Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act.
The CAD executive director expressed cautious optimism that INEC is beginning to recognize the gravity of the situation and may be taking steps to correct the institutional corruption that has allowed APP to remain on its database for six years despite being lawfully deregistered.
“We have gotten some assurances that the current INEC leadership under Prof. Joash Amupitan understands that this matter threatens the commission’s credibility and Nigeria’s electoral integrity,” Ngoforo observed.
However, he issued a stern warning that Nigerians’ patience is wearing thin and that the commission must act decisively and quickly to remove APP from its register of political parties. “INEC cannot continue to hide behind bureaucratic processes or institutional inertia when the evidence of fraud is so overwhelming and the threat to our democracy so clear. Every day that APP remains recognized as a legitimate political party is another day that INEC facilitates fraud against Nigerian citizens and undermines confidence in our electoral system. Prof. Amupitan must understand that history will not judge him kindly if he allows this corruption to continue on his watch.”
Lamenting that impunity has eaten deep into Nigeria’s political system, Ngoforo assured that CAD would defend democracy with all vigor and would not be intimidated by diversionary attacks from those benefiting from electoral corruption. “The allegations by this so-called Imo Leaders Thought are exactly what we expected from desperate people who have been caught red-handed operating an illegal enterprise,” he stated.
“They cannot defend APP’s legal status because the facts are incontrovertible: APP was deregistered in 2020, the Supreme Court affirmed INEC’s deregistration powers in 2022, and INEC has never produced the court order it claimed exempted APP from deregistration because that court order does not exist. So instead of addressing these facts, they resort to personal attacks and political conspiracy theories. This is the playbook of cornered fraudsters, and it will not work. We will not be distracted, we will not be intimidated, and we will not stop until APP is removed from INEC’s database and those who perpetrated this fraud face the full weight of the law,” Ngoforo assured.
The controversy that has now engulfed Imo State politics began on December 12, 2025, when CAD held a world press conference in Abuja to expose what it described as “a grand electoral conspiracy to derail the 2027 general elections and trigger constitutional crisis in Nigeria through INEC’s illegal recognition of deregistered APP.” During that press conference, CAD presented meticulously documented evidence that APP was among 74 political parties lawfully deregistered by INEC on February 6, 2020, for failing to meet constitutional requirements under Section 225 of the 1999 Constitution and the then-applicable Electoral Act 2010. The deregistration exercise was challenged in court by affected parties and ultimately upheld by the Supreme Court in March 2022, which affirmed INEC’s constitutional powers to deregister parties that fail to win seats in legislative houses or secure minimum vote thresholds in elections.
Despite this clear legal status, APP has continued to operate with INEC’s recognition based on the commission’s claim that the party obtained an interim court order restraining its deregistration, a claim that INEC has never substantiated with any documentation despite repeated requests.
The smoking gun in CAD’s exposé was a letter dated July 29, 2020, from Barr. Mrs. Eunice Atuejide, then National Chairman of the National Interest Party, to INEC requesting specific details about the purported court order protecting APP from deregistration. Mrs. Atuejide asked for the suit number, the name of the court that issued the order, the date of the order, and copies of relevant court processes; basic information that any transparent public institution should readily provide. INEC’s response to this legitimate request has been five years of complete silence, which CAD argues constitutes institutional admission that no such court order exists or ever existed.
The organization further revealed that APP’s operators, recognizing their increasingly untenable position, executed a desperate scheme in October 2024 by traveling to Jigawa State where they arranged to be ceded a councillorship seat in Buntusu Ward, Gwiwa Local Government Area, in a fraudulent attempt to create the impression that APP had met constitutional requirements for continued existence. CAD characterized this as a criminal transaction designed to manufacture false legitimacy rather than a genuine democratic contest.
