ABUJA, Nigeria — The campaign camp of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has strongly rejected allegations of electoral manipulation during the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential primary, describing the claims as baseless tantrums from an aggrieved politician.
The response followed a sharp public address on Monday, June 1, 2026, by the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, who announced his formal resignation from the ADC while accusing Atiku of corruptly influencing the national delegate process.
Okay News reports that Atiku’s Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, issued a scathing counter-statement, asserting that the primary was transparently conducted across thousands of wards and accurately mirrored the democratic will of the party’s nationwide membership.
Shaibu pointed out a glaring political inconsistency in Lawal’s stance, noting that the former SGF readily accepted the validity of the exact same primary framework in Adamawa State, where his cousin, Omar Suleiman, successfully emerged as the ADC governorship candidate. The campaign further chided Lawal for resorting to divisive ethnic and religious dog whistles, reminding the public of the controversial “grass-cutting scandal” that led to his removal from office in 2017, and maintained that the 2027 general election would be decided by Nigerian voters on critical economic and security issues rather than post-primary bitterness.
