– Asks President Tinubu to clarify ‘All is fair in politics” statement.
The African Democratic Congress has demanded the immediate arrest of the Kuje Area Council Chairman, Mr. Samuel Danjuma Shekwolo, over his reported declaration that residents must vote APC or leave the council area, calling it “a threat of forced displacement” that breaches Sections 40, 41 and 42 of the Constitution.
In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the party linked the remark to APC Senator Francis Fadahunsi, who was questioned and released without charge after threatening opposition voters during the Osun governorship election; while tracing both comments to President Bola Tinubu’s 29 July comment that “all is fair in politics. “ The party therefore demands that the President personally clarifies his statement and call his party to order.
The ADC also urged the National Peace Committee to speak now, warning that if it waits until 2027, it could find itself issuing condolences, instead of appeals.
The full statement read:
The African Democratic Congress has read with alarm the reported declaration by the Chairman of Kuje Area Council, Mr. Samuel Danjuma Shekwolo, that residents of Kuje must join or vote for the All Progressives Congress (APC) or leave the council area.
Let us be clear about what this is: A sitting elected official, in whose custody the safety and welfare of every resident of Kuje has been placed, has publicly tied a citizen’s right to live in his own country to the party that they vote for. That is a threat of forced displacement. In a country that has buried too many of its people to political violence, it is an invitation to anarchy.
The ADC therefore calls on the Inspector-General of Police and the Department of State Services to arrest Mr. Shekwolo and charge him accordingly. Not to invite him. Not to “engage” him. Not to invite him for a chat and release him before the ink on the headline is dry. Arrest him, charge him, and let a court of law decide.
Sections 40, 41 and 42 of the 1999 Constitution guarantee every Nigerian the right to belong to any political party of their choice. Every Nigerian has the right to reside in any part of the Federation. And no government or public official may discriminate against a citizen on the basis of their political opinion. Mr. Shekwolo swore an oath to that Constitution. In one sentence, he violated three of its provisions.
He should also be reminded of the arithmetic of his own mandate. He was returned with 17,269 votes, against 15,824 for the PDP and 4,305 for APGA. Twenty thousand of the people he now threatens to evict did not vote for him — and he has a responsibility towards them as well.
Nevertheless, at this point, it is important to point out that this is not an isolated outburst. It is a pattern. Nigerians would recall that they have seen and heard this before. On 15 August 2026, at Polling Unit 1, NUD Primary School, Illusoriness, during the Osun governorship election, Senator Francis Fadahunsi of the APC, representing Osun East, instructed party supporters to watch how citizens voted, declaring: “Anyone who votes for the person they are not supposed to vote for should be dealt with.” Days earlier, he had said of opposition supporters: “Till the day of the election, if we see any Accord Party members, we’ll kill them.” He added that Accord members holding valid PVCs would not be allowed to vote at all.
A sitting Senator of the Federal Republic publicly threatened to kill Nigerians over their political choice. He was questioned by the police. He walked away. No charge. No suspension. No consequence. Ten days later, a council chairman in the Federal Capital Territory, under the President’s own nose, tells residents to vote APC or get out. That is not a coincidence, that is a lesson being learned. When a Senator can threaten to kill voters and keep his seat, a council chairman will conclude, quite reasonably, that he can threaten to evict them without consequences.
We say plainly what many Nigerians are already saying privately: this culture of impunity did not fall from the sky. It was authorised from the top. On 29 July 2026, while meeting Catholic Bishops in Abuja, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu declared: “All is fair in politics.”
Words from a President are not idle. They are read as an instruction by every office-holder who owes his position to that President. And since those words were spoken, we have watched what “all is fair” looks like in practice: voters threatened with death in Osun, and residents threatened with eviction in Kuje. Members of the President’s party have heard him, and they have taken him at his word.
If that is not what the President meant, he should say so himself, and he should say so now. The ADC calls on President Tinubu to publicly clarify that “all is fair in politics” was not a licence for intimidation, voter suppression, threats of violence or forced displacement. He should call the officials and elected members of his party to order, by name, beginning with Mr. Shekwolo and Senator Fadahunsi. A clarification issued by aides in a press statement will not do. The words were the President’s. The correction must be the President’s. Silence at this point is not neutrality. Silence is ratification.
To the National Peace Committee.
We address the National Peace Committee directly, and with respect: we hope you are witnessing this. The Committee’s work has always been to secure peaceful elections by holding the powerful to their word before the votes are counted, not after the bodies are. The pattern now unfolding: a President’s remark, a Senator’s death threat, a chairman’s eviction notice, and a police service that questions and releases, is precisely the sequence the Committee should exist to interrupt. We invite the Committee to speak, publicly and without ambiguity, while speaking still costs nothing but courage. If it waits until 2027, it will be issuing condolences, not appeals.
Our demands
1. The ADC demands the immediate arrest and prosecution of Mr. Samuel Danjuma Shekwolo.
2. We also demand the reopening and full prosecution of the case against Senator Francis Fadahunsi.
3. The preservation by the Police, DSS and INEC of all video, audio and documentary evidence of both incidents.
4. A public, personal clarification by President Tinubu of his “all is fair in politics” remark, and a public call to order directed at his party.
5. That the APC publicly disown Mr. Shekwolo’s statement and discipline him under its own constitution.
6. A full, unqualified retraction and public apology by Mr. Shekwolo to the people of Kuje.
7. That domestic and international election observers formally place the FCT and Osun on record as early-warning locations ahead of 2027.
Nigerians are not tenants in their own country, holding their residency at the pleasure of a ruling party. We are citizens. The ADC will defend that distinction in every ward, in every council and in every court in this Federation.
Signed:
Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi
National Publicity Secretary
African Democratic Congress (ADC)
