‘No Evidence’: Atiku Camp Fires Back at Babachir Lawal Over ADC Rigging Claims

‘No Evidence’: Atiku Camp Fires Back at Babachir Lawal Over ADC Rigging Claims

Abuja, Nigeria – 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, June 1, 2026, 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.

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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.”

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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. “The Nigerian people know Atiku Abubakar. They know his record in public service. They know his achievements in business. They know his commitment to national unity and economic reform,” he stressed. The statement concluded by urging Lawal to provide evidence for his allegations or withdraw them and apologize to the ADC leadership and members he had insulted.

The ADC presidential primary, held on May 25, 2026, at the Congress Hall of Transcorp Hilton, Abuja, saw Atiku poll 1,846,370 votes to defeat former Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi, who secured 504,117 votes, and businessman Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, who received 177,120 votes. The Chairman of the Presidential Primary Election Committee, Chief Ikechi Emenike, said 2,527,977 registered party members participated in the exercise, while the Chief Returning Officer, Senator Tunde Ogbeha, declared Atiku as the winner. However, the primary had drawn criticism from some aspirants. Before the announcement of the results, Hayatu-Deen had publicly distanced himself from the process, citing concerns about alleged vote manipulation and the integrity of the exercise. Amaechi also raised concerns about irregularities in the process. Despite these initial protests, Atiku has since moved to consolidate the party. He visited both Amaechi and Hayatu-Deen in separate meetings following the primary. During his meeting with Hayatu-Deen at the latter’s Lagos residence on Sunday, Atiku announced that both leaders had agreed to put the tensions arising from the primary election behind them and work together to position the ADC as a credible alternative to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). Hayatu-Deen later ruled out challenging the outcome of the primary, citing party unity.

In his acceptance speech after the primary, Atiku described the exercise as transparent and credible. According to him, party members were allowed to freely express opinions and contest elective positions through a transparent democratic process. He said the primary was not about winners and losers but a collective effort to rescue Nigeria from misrule. “There are no winners and losers. Our people look up to us for leadership, and we are ready to lead,” he said. He also appealed to aggrieved members and fellow contestants, including Amaechi and Hayatu-Deen, to unite ahead of the 2027 general election. “I therefore appeal to all those who feel aggrieved to come back to our party and close ranks with the rest of us. In particular, I invite Chief Rotimi Amaechi and Alhaji Muhammad Hayatu-Deen to join me in this fight to save our democracy and our country,” Atiku stated.

Lawal, in his lengthy Facebook post, had claimed that the ADC primary was “massively rigged” at all levels in favour of Atiku. “I am exiting the ADC because its just concluded primaries were at all levels massively rigged in favour of Kachalla Abubakar Atiku. I sense a conspiracy of silence of which I want no part of,” Lawal wrote. “Most members of the party are behaving as if this is the normal thing to do. Results were just written or rewritten to favour him and his coven. Even where they allowed some semblance of an election to hold, the winners were simply replaced with members of his syndicate. In the real sense, it was a disgraceful charade.” Lawal further described Atiku as an “irredentist Fulani and religious hegemonist” and argued that President Bola Tinubu would perform better than Atiku if faced with a choice between the two. “For me, working for Kachalla Atiku means giving Tinubu an automatic ticket to a second term, which gives me nightmares. I believe Tinubu might, comparatively speaking, end up a better Nigerian president than Kachalla Atiku could ever be (as bad as Tinubu currently is and possibly could ever be).” He also vowed to work with like-minded associates to stop Atiku’s presidential ambition, declaring that he would retire to his village farm to watch Atiku “mercilessly out-rigged and beaten to pulp by Tinubu’s ruthless and superior rigging machine.”

Key takeaways from this political showdown include the following: Babachir Lawal resigned from the African Democratic Congress (ADC) on June 1, 2026, alleging the party’s presidential primary was “massively rigged” in favour of Atiku Abubakar; the Presidency, through spokesman Bayo Onanuga, reacted gleefully, stating that Lawal had “destroyed Atiku” more than any government criticism could have; Atiku’s camp, through spokesman Phrank Shaibu, dismissed Lawal’s allegations as baseless and accused him of political inconsistency and failing to provide evidence; the Atiku camp revived the “grass-cutting scandal” that led to Lawal’s removal as SGF in 2017, questioning his moral authority; Lawal was accused of double standards, as his cousin won the ADC governorship primary in Adamawa State without complaint from him; Atiku won the ADC primary with 1,846,370 votes, defeating Amaechi (504,117) and Hayatu-Deen (177,120); and Atiku has since held reconciliation meetings with both Amaechi and Hayatu-Deen to unite the party ahead of 2027.

‘No Evidence’: Atiku Camp Fires Back at Babachir Lawal Over ADC Rigging Claims