Former secretary of the government of the federation, Babachir Lawal, has dumped the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
Lawal, in a statement issued on Monday, alleged that the just-concluded ADC primaries were “massively rigged” in favour of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and his allies.
Last month, 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, with Atiku, Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, former managing director of the defunct FSB International Bank, and Rotimi Amaechi, former governor of Rivers, as the main contenders.
Atiku polled 1,846,370 votes to defeat Amaechi, who garnered 504,117 votes, while Hayatu-Deen got 177,120 votes.
Amaechi and Hayatu-Deen subsequently rejected the election outcome and boycotted the announcement of the ADC presidential results in Abuja.
Lawal, who hails from Adamawa as the former vice-president, said the primaries were allegedly 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 said he does not want to be part of any rigging plan in the 2027 elections, adding that working for Atiku means “giving Tinubu an automatic ticket to a second term, which gives me nightmares”.
He said Tinubu would eventually make a better president than Atiku.
Lawal described Atiku as incompetent, adding that he will work against the former vice-president in the 2027 elections.
