Atiku Abubakar, Chibuike Amaechi, and Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, Monday commenced their battle for African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential ticket across the federation.
Results from the primary election, trickling in from different parts of the country, showed each aspirant leading in their respective strongholds.
For instance, results announced in Bolewa and Potiskum in Yobe State by the returning of-ficer, showed that Atiku polled 740 votes as against Amaechi with 15 votes and Hayatu-Deen who got two votes
Amaechi, a former Minister of Transportation, voted at his Ubima Ward in the Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State, while Hayatu-Deen cast his vote in Jare, Borno State.
The ADC presidential primary election took place in 8,809 wards across Nigeria.
Atiku, who cast his vote in Jimeta area of Adamawa State applauded the conduct of the primary election.
In a post on X, he stated that the outcome of the primary election action would help Nigeria recover.
In Sokoto State, Atiku polled a staggering 68,824 votes to outclass his closest challengers.
The result left little room for doubt as Atiku’s tally dwarfed that of fellow aspirants Hayatu-Deen and Amaechi, who managed 319 and 292 votes, respectively.
Declaring the results at the ADC secretariat in Sokoto, Returning Officer, Professor Aminu Abubakar, announced Atiku as the winner after securing the “highest lawful votes” cast during the exercise.
ADC had said the fate of Atiku, Amaechi, and Hayatu-Deen would be determined by three million and forty-four digitally registered voters.
The party also affirmed that the primary election was ongoing at the 8809 wards across the country. This was disclosed at a press conference by National Publicity Secretary of the party, Bolaji Abdullahi, and the chairman of the presidential nomination committee, Ikechi Emenike.
ADC mounted a big digital electronic signpost for the collation of results. The results were collated once the votes from the wards were certified by the presidential committee
The digital electronic board was mounted at Congress Hall of Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja.
Giving details of the primary elections, the spokesman of the party said, “INEC supervised all our primaries at all levels including the presidential primary. The name of David Mark and Rauf Aregbesola are in INEC website.
“As we speak, officials of the commission are monitoring all the presidential primary elections.”
Chairman of the ADC presidential primary election committee, Emenike, said, “Unlike the culture of imposition, consensus manipulation and predetermined outcomes that have become prevalent in contemporary political parties, the ADC has embraced a credible democratic process that gives every qualified aspirant an equal opportunity to present their vision and earn the support of party members across the country.
“What differentiates ADC from other parties in Nigeria is that it is the only party blessed with three eminently qualified aspirants who are capable of piloting the affairs of this country at this most difficult time.
“Our aspirants are the highly respected former Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, H.E Atiku Abubakar, GCON. A dedicated democrat, a nation builder and a great unifier; the Rt. Hon. Rotimi Amaechi, the vibrant former Governor of Rivers State and a former Minister of Transportation who led some of the most ambitious transport infrastructure projects across our country; and, of course, Alhaji Mohammed Hayatu-deen, one of our nations’ finest development economists, businessman and former chairman of Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG).
“As you can see, each one of them is a genuine Presidential contender, not some shadowy candidate contrived to confer legitimacy on a process where one man contested against himself.
“Quite significantly, the unhindered participation of our three eminent aspirants underscores the commitment of the African Democratic Congress to build a party rooted in democracy, dialogue and open contestations of ideas. It is for this reason that the ADC remains the true platform for democratic rebirth and national transformation.”
Amaechi: I’ll Accept Result If Transparent
Presidential hopeful, Chibuike Amaechi, assured ADC members that if the outcome of the party’s presidential primary election was transparent, he would accept it and work with whoever wins.
The former Minister of Transportation, who joined thousands of supporters and party members to participate in the presidential primary election in his ward in Ubima, Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State, warned that if the process and out-come were not transparent, he would contest it.
The former Rivers State governor queued alongside party faithful and supporters to cast his vote at Ward 8 in Ikwerre Local Government Area.
The presidential primary was being conducted using the Option A4 voting method across wards in the country.
Speaking with journalists shortly after voting, Amaechi expressed confidence in the process and said he hoped the exercise would be free, fair, and transparent.
Amaechi, who acknowledged the huge turnout of party members for the election, said, “There was a huge turnout, in their thousands, to vote. First, there was dancing, celebrations and all that. And then we got the people involved. I cast my vote and I left the place.”
When asked how he would describe the election process, he said, “I hope that the system will be transparent as it was in my village. If it is transparent, I will accept the result.
“Because from the ward, what I believe is that if the primary is free and fair, nobody is going to react. But if the regime is not free and fair, a lot of us will react.”
On why he wanted to be the president of the country, he said, “If you see what I have done in Rivers State, because I changed the face of Rivers; in education, in security.
“By the time I came to Rivers, you knew that people couldn’t go out of their houses. You knew that we had the medical health challenge, men or husbands couldn’t go out at night to have alcohol or drink or have parties because of the level of insecurity.
“So, what they were doing was produce children. When our health sector became a challenge, we had to tap to settle the insecurity so that people could go out. And in less than six months, the protocol became free. So, these security challenges can be tackled. The problem is that as soon as Nigerian politicians get money, they forget that there is responsibility.
“When we came here, all of you from Rivers would agree with us that if we didn’t attend to the economic challenges, probably the insecurity wouldn’t have stopped. So, we awarded contracts of primary schools, of health centres, of roads, electricity. By the time we finished, we had generated 750 megawatts of power.
“One of the reasons the former president and I disagreed was the power issue. We had generated 750 megawatts and we needed to do the distribution. So we went to the president and said, look, we need to do the distribution of this power.
“So, if it wasn’t our responsibility, we needed to have a franchise. So if he gave us a franchise, we would have done the distribution and Port Harcourt would have had regular power supply. At that time, Port Harcourt required 450 megawatts of power. And we had 750 megawatts of power with the power audit.”
ADC Condemns Tinubu’s Comments That Opposition Parties Are Self-serving
ADC condemned President Bola Tinubu’s recent comments attacking the opposition, and describing them as self-serving and deeply insensitive.
While delivering his acceptance speech as the presidential candidate of the ruling APC in next year’s election, Tinubu had declared that opposition leaders would only take the country backwards because they lacked alternative vision.
However, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, ADC said it was a grand irony that such a statement was coming from a president whose tenure would be remembered as one of the worst periods in Nigeria’s democratic history.
Abdullahi stated, “With millions of Nigerians suffering under the president’s catastrophic economic policies, debts spiralling out of control, corruption enjoying unprecedented prosperity, and the nation flowing with the blood of innocent victims, it is indeed astonishing that the president could still attempt to position his government as a positive benchmark.
“If the opposition is going to take the country backwards, it would be to reset it from the edge of the dangerous precipice that the current administration has placed it on, because to continue on the same trajectory is to plunge the country into the abyss.”
ADC also raised concerns over the APC presidential primary results, which allegedly gave Tinubu 10.99 million votes, describing the figure as an “unbelievable concoction” and warning that it could provide the basis for rigging the 2027 general elections.
The party said it was genuinely shocked and saddened that Tinubu, whose administration had presided over one of the most painful periods in Nigeria’s democratic history, would speak so dismissively about the opposition and the Nigerian people while awarding himself a medal for one of the most catastrophic economic policies in recent history.
According to the spokesman of the ADC, “It is both ironic and tragic that a government under whose watch nearly 35 million Nigerians are now projected to face acute food insecurity in 2026 would accuse the opposition of lacking ideas or vision.
“This is a government under which inflation has devastated household incomes, food prices have become unbearable, insecurity has continued to spread across the country, and millions of Nigerians now live with a level of economic anxiety and hopelessness never before experienced in recent national history.”
Chuks Okocha, Onuminya Innocent and Blessing Ibunge
