Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and ex-Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, on Monday exchanged verbal missiles over the conduct of the African Democratic Congress presidential primaries, which produced Atiku as the winner.
Atiku had last week polled a total of 1,846,370 votes to beat former Rivers State governor Rotimi Amaechi and businessman-politician Mohammed Hayatu-Deen to the ADC presidential ticket, with the duo garnering 504,117 and 177,120 votes, respectively.
Lawal, until recently, was a chieftain of the ADC and a key opposition figure in the broad coalition against President Bola Tinubu in 2027.
While announcing his resignation from the party on Monday, the former SGF slammed Atiku for allegedly influencing the outcome of the party’s primaries held across the country.
“I am exiting the ADC because its just concluded primaries were at all levels massively rigged in favour of Kachalla Abubakar Atiku.
“Results were just written or rewritten to favour him and his coven. Even where they allowed some semblance of an election to be held, the winners were simply replaced with members of his syndicate. In the real sense, it was a disgraceful charade,” Lawal said in a statement posted on his social media platforms.
The ex-SGF said the silence which greeted the primaries prompted him to speak and set the record straight.
“I sense a conspiracy of silence of which I want no part. Most members of the party are behaving as if this is the normal thing to do,” the statement further read.
He vowed not to be part of any rigging plan in the 2027 elections, adding that working for Atiku is the same as “giving Tinubu an automatic ticket to a second term, which gives me nightmares.”
However, in a statement issued on behalf of the former Vice President by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, the Atiku camp rejected claims that the ADC primary election was manipulated, insisting that the exercise reflected the will of party members across the country.
Atiku’s camp accused Lawal of attempting to malign both the party and its members without evidence.
“Having chosen to malign a democratic process, insult thousands of ADC members nationwide, and make grave allegations without presenting a shred of evidence, it has become necessary to set the record straight,” the statement said.
Shaibu argued that Lawal had failed to provide any proof to support his allegations of electoral manipulation.
“The truth is straightforward. The ADC presidential primaries were conducted across thousands of wards and produced a clear and decisive outcome.
“What Mr Lawal has offered Nigerians is not evidence. He has produced no documents, no verifiable facts, no credible witnesses, and no proof whatsoever to support his sensational allegations,” he said.
The Atiku camp also accused the former SGF of political inconsistency, pointing to what it described as his acceptance of outcomes from the same primary process in other contests.
“Mr Lawal has also failed to explain how the very same primary process he now dismissed as fraudulent somehow produced a result he appears perfectly willing to accept in Adamawa State, where his cousin, Omar Suleiman, emerged as the ADC governorship candidate.
“Nigerians are entitled to ask whether the process was only credible when it favoured his family and only rigged when it produced a presidential candidate he did not support,” the statement added.
It further took aim at Lawal’s public image as a critic of corruption and electoral malpractice, reviving controversies that trailed his tenure as SGF during the administration of the late President Muhammadu Buhari.
“It is perhaps the greatest irony of this entire episode that Mr Babachir Lawal now seeks to reinvent himself as Nigeria’s newest apostle of integrity, transparency, and democratic virtue.
“Nigerians may forgive many things, but they seldom forget history. Mr Lawal is not remembered for any celebrated crusade for accountability.
