The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has described President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s emerging 2027 campaign council as a “rehabilitation centre” for persons facing unresolved corruption questions.

Reacting on Saturday through its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC questioned the inclusion of former Humanitarian Affairs Minister Betta Edu and former NSITF Chairman Ngozi Olejeme in the council.

The party asked the government to disclose whether outstanding corruption cases involving them had been resolved or whether the appointments amounted to a pardon for corrupt officials affiliated with the APC.

“We have taken note of the composition of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s 2027 campaign council. What should ordinarily be a political task team ends up looking like a rehabilitation system for individuals carrying unresolved questions of corruption and public accountability,” the statement said.

The ADC cited Edu’s suspension over the attempted transfer of N585 million into a private account and Olejeme’s EFCC prosecution over allegations of financial malpractice.

“One important question that the inclusion of these individuals provokes is what happened to the cases involving these individuals. If they have been cleared, the government should show how and when and by whom they were cleared,” Abdullahi said.

He added that it had become a familiar pattern under the administration for investigations into financial crimes to “quietly disappear, only for the accused to suddenly reappear in a different official role”.

“Under this government, corruption allegations increasingly appear to have an expiry date. Once a person becomes politically useful enough, yesterday’s questions apparently no longer require today’s answers,” the ADC spokesman said.

The party insisted that the 2027 general election would be a referendum on Tinubu’s performance in the last three years.

“For emphasis, the 2027 election will be a referendum on President Tinubu’s record. The President may assemble his old friends and political allies, including those carrying unresolved corruption questions, but all of their collective brooms cannot sweep away the grave pains they have brought on the Nigerian people,” it stated.

The ADC said the administration could not “campaign away the cost-of-living crisis or the endemic poverty that their bad policies have created”.

“For three years, they have told Nigerians who can barely afford food to tighten their belts, while those connected to the government continue to live in obscene opulence, feeding fat on the common wealth. The time for reckoning has come,” the statement added.

On policy, the ADC reiterated its commitment to subsidise the production of fuel under the Atiku Economic Recovery Plan (AERP) as a way of bringing down pump prices and the general cost of living.

The party said it had observed government attacks on its proposal for a targeted, capped, budgeted and independently audited subsidy intervention.

“What we understand the APC government to be saying is that Nigeria cannot afford to protect struggling families. They are saying that a government that has continued to engage in monumental waste of resources cannot afford to help poor Nigerians who are merely struggling to survive,” it said.

“Our proposal is straightforward: every naira must be traceable and every barrel accounted for. Before President Tinubu lectures Nigerians about the cost of helping them, he should account for the cost of his own government’s wrong-headed policy that has turned state governors into wastrels and federal agents into profligates.”