ABUJA, Nigeria — Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar held a consultative meeting with veteran journalist, media mogul, and political chieftain, Chief Dele Momodu, at his private residence in Abuja on Saturday afternoon, June 6, 2026.
The sit-down comes on the heels of mounting political waves within the African Democratic Congress (ADC), following Atiku’s recent emergence as the party’s official presidential flagbearer for the upcoming 2027 general elections.
Okay News reports that the meeting, which Atiku’s media team characterized as a focused session on “nation-building and Nigeria’s progressive advancement,” serves as a visible show of solidarity amid an intense internal party dispute. Earlier in the week, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and prominent APC chieftain, Babachir Lawal, sparked widespread controversy by publicly alleging that Atiku had systemically rigged the decentralized ADC presidential primary to secure the ticket.
Momodu, an ADC stalwart who previously sought the presidency himself, strongly dismissed Lawal’s allegations during a national television appearance on Channels TV’s Politics Today. He challenged the former SGF to produce verifiable empirical evidence to back his claims, noting that the voting process spanned over 8,000 separate operational locations nationwide. “None of us is omnipresent… So, if it was rigged, why didn’t he send in the evidence? It’s been about a week now since this happened,” Momodu stated, characterizing Lawal’s outburst as mere political bitterness over Atiku’s extensive national network.
Defending the former Vice President’s democratic credentials against criticisms regarding his age and recent high-profile defections from his home state of Adamawa, Momodu likened Atiku’s political trajectory to global statesmen like Donald Trump and Liberian President Joseph Boakai. He argued that Atiku’s long-standing experience and inclusive leadership style—notably his history of empowering young technocrats during the Obasanjo administration—make him uniquely qualified to navigate Nigeria’s structural challenges. Saturday’s closed-door dialogue highlights Atiku’s ongoing efforts to consolidate his media and political alliances as the nation transitions into an early 2027 campaign cycle.
