Former governorship candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, in Cross River State, Dr. Effiong Nyong, has warned that the party and the people of the state will no longer allow themselves to be taken for a ride by what he described as political impostors.

Nyong stated this in a letter addressed to the ADC National Chairman, reacting to a circular issued by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, titled “Composition of the ADC 50 Wise Men and Women Policy Manifesto Committee.”

The list named two prominent Cross River politicians, Senator Gershom Bassey and Ambassador Nkoyo Toyo, as members of the committee, a move Nyong strongly rejected.

According to him, neither of the listed individuals is a member of the ADC, insisting that they remain active members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and have never formally resigned their membership or identified with the ADC at any level.

“The names from Cross River State listed are alien to the ADC. They are not members of the party, do not possess ADC membership cards, are unknown in any ward or chapter of the party, and have never contributed a kobo to the growth or activities of the ADC in Cross River State,” Nyong said.

He argued that presenting such individuals to Nigerians as representatives of the ADC amounts to projecting a faction of the PDP that has merely transfigured into the ADC, describing the situation as a pattern of impunity taken too far.

Nyong recalled that during the 2023 general elections, the ADC, then dismissed by critics as “colourless”, collapsed its structures to support the Obedient Movement, a strategy that helped secure about 72 per cent of the presidential votes in the state.

He lamented that the same ADC and Obedient Movement are now being undermined by what he called a fractured PDP faction that previously shared only 38 per cent of votes with other parties, including the ruling APC.

Nyong disclosed that several blocs within the coalition, which joined voluntarily and contributed financially, are deeply unhappy with the appointment of non-members, warning that Cross River State will no longer tolerate being sidelined or misrepresented.

“If the ADC truly seeks to rescue Cross River State and Nigeria, it must first rescue itself from the clutches of these impostors who want to hijack the platform for narrow interests by shutting out genuine members,” he said.