JUST IN: Babachir Lawal dumps ADC, accuses Atiku of rigging primaries

Babachir Lawal, a former secretary to the government of the federation, has resigned from the African Democratic Congress (ADC).

In a statement issued on Monday, Lawal alleged that the just-concluded ADC primaries were “massively rigged” in favour of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and his allies.

In April, the ADC conducted nationwide direct primaries to select its candidates for the senate, house of representatives, governorship, and state houses of assembly ahead of the 2027 elections.

The party also held a presidential primary featuring former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, former managing director of the defunct FSB International Bank, and Rotimi Amaechi, former governor of Rivers State, as the leading contenders.

Atiku secured a decisive victory, polling 1,846,370 votes to defeat Amaechi, who garnered 504,117 votes, while Hayatu-Deen received 177,120 votes.

However, both Amaechi and Hayatu-Deen rejected the outcome and boycotted the official announcement of the presidential results in Abuja.

Lawal, who hails from Adamawa State like the former vice-president, alleged that the primaries were rigged at all levels in favour of Atiku and his associates.

“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 reads.

“Even where they allowed some semblance of election to hold, the winners were simply replaced with members of his syndicate. In the real sense, it was a disgraceful charade.”

Lawal further stated that he does not want to be part of any alleged rigging plan ahead of the 2027 elections. He added that supporting Atiku would amount to “giving Tinubu an automatic ticket to a second term, which gives me nightmares”.

He maintained that Tinubu would ultimately make a better president than Atiku.

Lawal also described Atiku as incompetent and declared that he would work against the former vice-president in the 2027 elections.