APC rejects Atiku’s claim of using service-wide vote for Tinubu’s 2027 campaign

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has dismissed claims by former Vice President and African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, that the 2026 Service-Wide Vote (SWV) was set aside to fund President Bola Tinubu’s 2027 re-election campaign.

In a statement released in Abuja on Wednesday, APC National Publicity Secretary Felix Morka described Atiku’s allegation as a sign of disturbing ignorance of basic public finance principles and calculated mischief.

Atiku had accused the Tinubu administration of using the Service-Wide Vote as an illegal slush fund for the 2027 election.

Responding, Morka said Atiku failed to provide any evidence to support the allegation.

He explained that “A Service-Wide Vote is a long-established and widely used budgetary mechanism designed to cater for government-wide obligations and unforeseen expenditures that arise after the annual budget has been passed.”

Morka added, “It is not a secret fund or an illegal slush account, as Atiku has baselessly and recklessly alleged.”

The APC said the SWV is a normal budgeting practice used in many countries and argued that Atiku, as an experienced politician, should understand how it works.

The ruling party also accused the former vice president of trying to tarnish the image of the Tinubu administration.

“The ghost of his sordid past haunts Atiku,” the statement said, adding that he was attempting to attack an administration it described as successful.

The APC pointed to several government programmes under the Renewed Hope Agenda, including the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), the new national minimum wage, the Consumer Credit Scheme and the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) initiative, as examples of the administration’s achievements.

The party maintained that Nigerians can distinguish between political accusations and the government’s performance, insisting that President Tinubu remains focused on economic reforms, tax relief for low-income earners and stabilising the economy ahead of the 2027 elections.