Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar was heading for a landslide victory in the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential primary on Tuesday night, sweeping state after state in results that his two rivals dismissed as fraudulent — throwing the opposition party into turmoil at a critical moment in its bid to challenge the ruling APC.
With results declared from 24 states and the Federal Capital Territory by late Tuesday, Atiku had won 22 states and the FCT by wide margins, while former Rivers State governor Rotimi Amaechi claimed only two — his home-region strongholds of Akwa Ibom and Ebonyi. The economist Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, the third contender, had yet to win a single state.
The figures were striking in their scale. In Adamawa, Atiku’s home state, he polled 177,141 votes to Hayatu-Deen’s 18,949 and Amaechi’s 1,896. In Kano he secured 155,595 votes, in Gombe 136,933, and in Anambra 58,566. Even in states where Amaechi might have expected stronger performances, the margins were overwhelming: in Enugu, Atiku led with 33,879 votes to Amaechi’s 15,127.
Yet before the final results could be declared at the Transcorp Hilton in Abuja — where returning officers from across the country arrived to submit their tallies under the watch of Independent National Electoral Commission monitors — the process had already begun to unravel.
Hayatu-Deen was the first to walk away. In a post on X, he announced he would not attend the collation and declaration ceremony, citing “widespread vote rigging, some of which I myself observed.” He declined to name those he held responsible, saying only that he would be “taking advice on my next steps.”
Amaechi followed within hours, publishing a forceful rejection of the results on his verified account. “I unequivocally reject the concocted results being announced,” he wrote, alleging that roughly 80% of party members had been prevented from casting votes. “What makes us different from the others?” he asked, in a pointed reference to the ruling party the ADC was formed to oppose.
For a party that has staked its identity on being a credible alternative to the APC — and whose leadership has loudly condemned vote-buying and electoral manipulation under the current government — the allegations carry a particular sting. “A party that criticises the ruling APC and INEC for vote buying, rigging and writing of results cannot be engaged in the same malpractices,” Amaechi said.
The ADC’s national publicity secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, sought to contain the damage, telling Channels Television that collation was still ongoing and that no conclusive evidence of rigging had emerged. “We currently do not have sufficient evidence to either support or dismiss those claims,” he said, urging aggrieved aspirants to pursue grievances through internal party mechanisms rather than public statements.
Abdullahi also moved to dismiss reports of a parallel faction within the party, insisting that INEC recognised only the current National Working Committee as the legitimate organising body, and that electoral officials had monitored every stage of the process across all 36 states and the FCT.
The ceremony was attended by ADC national chairman Senator David Mark, alongside party grandees including Senator Tunde Ogbeha and former sports minister Solomon Dalung — a show of institutional solidarity that did little, however, to paper over the widening cracks.
The outcome leaves Nigeria’s opposition landscape in a precarious state. The ADC had presented itself as a vehicle for Nigerians disillusioned with both the APC and the PDP. Whether it can maintain that proposition — with two of its three presidential aspirants now publicly questioning the integrity of its own primary — may prove the defining question of its short history.
