Atiku camp fires back at Babachir Lawal over ADC rigging claims

The camp of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has launched a fierce counter-attack against former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, dismissing his allegations that the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential primary was rigged as “unsubstantiated” and accusing him of political inconsistency.

The response came after Presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga gleefully declared that Lawal had inflicted more damage on Atiku than any criticism from the presidency could have achieved.

Lawal, in a Facebook post on Monday,  announced his exit from the ADC over the outcome of the party’s presidential primary won by Atiku.

His resignation came barely a week after the ADC primary held on May 25, 2026, which produced Atiku as the party’s presidential candidate for the 2027 general elections.

In his explosive resignation statement, Lawal claimed that ADC’s presidential primary was manipulated in favour of Atiku, describing the exercise as a “disgraceful charade” where results were “written or rewritten” to favour the former vice president and his inner circle.

Reacting to Lawal’s scathing attack, Presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga took to X (formerly Twitter) to mock Atiku.

“We have not fired any bullet against veteran presidential runner and northern hegemonic Abubakar Atiku yet. But a close ally just destroyed Atiku in many unflattering words.

“It’s a warning that the man should retire to Dubai quickly,” Onanuga wrote.

The Presidency’s reaction underscores the political advantage the ruling party sees in the widening cracks within the opposition as Atiku attempts to build a coalition to challenge President Bola Tinubu in 2027.

In a swift and detailed response issued on behalf of Atiku Abubakar by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, the camp of the former vice president rejected claims that the ADC presidential primary was manipulated, insisting that the exercise reflected the will of party members across the country.

 “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.”

The Atiku camp maintained that the primary results, which saw Atiku poll 1,846,370 votes against Rotimi Amaechi’s 504,117 votes and Mohammed Hayatu-Deen’s 177,120 votes, reflected the genuine choice of ADC members nationwide.

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 dismisses 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.”

This accusation of double standards struck at the heart of Lawal’s credibility as a critic of electoral malpractice. The Atiku camp argued that Lawal’s sudden concern for electoral integrity appeared selective, conveniently emerging only when the outcome did not favour his preferences while remaining silent when the same process benefited his family member.

The statement further took aim at Lawal’s public image as a critic of corruption and electoral malpractice, reviving controversies that trailed his tenure as Secretary to the Government of the Federation during the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.

Lawal was removed from office in 2017 following allegations linked to contracts awarded through the Presidential Initiative on the North-East, a controversy that became widely known as the “grass-cutting scandal.” The Senate had called for his suspension and prosecution after an ad-hoc committee led by Shehu Sani indicted Lawal for receiving contracts to clear “invasive plant species” in Yobe State through a company, Rholavision Nigeria Limited, in which he had an interest.

While President Buhari initially defended Lawal, he was eventually suspended in April 2017 pending investigation. Lawal has consistently denied any wrongdoing. “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,” the statement added, questioning his moral authority to lecture others on electoral integrity.

Atiku’s camp further argued that Lawal’s criticisms were driven more by dissatisfaction with the outcome of the primary than by genuine concerns about electoral integrity.

 “What appears to have truly unsettled Mr Lawal is not the conduct of the primaries but the outcome. Democracy guarantees participation, not victory. One cannot celebrate democracy when it produces a preferred result and suddenly condemn it as rigged when it does not.”

The statement emphasized that political participation carries no guarantee of victory, and that Lawal’s resignation appeared to stem from personal disappointment rather than principled objection to the process.

The statement also faulted what it described as Lawal’s resort to ethnic and religious sentiments in his criticisms of the primary. “Having failed to persuade ADC members to embrace his preferred candidate, he now seeks refuge in the divisive politics of identity,” Shaibu said, arguing that such rhetoric does little to address the country’s pressing challenges. “It creates no jobs, lowers no food prices, secures no communities, and offers no pathway out of the national crisis.”

Defending Atiku’s political credentials, Shaibu maintained that the 2027 election would be decided by Nigerians based on issues of governance, economic recovery, and national security rather than internal party disputes.