Alleged Election Rigging: Atiku Challenges Former SGF Lawal to Provide Evidence and Cease Grandstanding

By Omeiza Ajayi, ABUJA

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has rejected claims made by former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, regarding the conduct of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential primary. Atiku described the allegations as a mix of bitterness, conjecture, and political revisionism presented as public interest.

Atiku’s Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, released a statement on Tuesday that described the television interview with Mr. Lawal as a “curious spectacle.” He said the interview featured a man “armed with outrage but bereft of evidence; rich in allegations but poor in facts.”

Shaibu said this would be Atiku’s final response to the matter. “Mr. Lawal spent nearly an hour making grave accusations about the conduct of the ADC presidential primary. Yet he failed to produce a single piece of verifiable evidence. No document. No petition. No result sheet. No witness statement. No recording. Nothing. For a man who repeatedly insisted that proof was ‘everywhere,’ his performance was a masterclass in making extraordinary allegations without meeting the elementary obligation of substantiating them,” Shaibu quoted Atiku as saying.

“He arrived with accusations. He left with accusations. In between, the evidence never arrived,” he added.

Atiku said that, rather than a genuine whistleblower, Lawal’s interview revealed “a disappointed political actor struggling to come to terms with the failure of his preferred candidate.” Lawal had openly aligned with another aspirant before the primary concluded, campaigned for that candidate, and publicly believed that candidate should win.

The statement also pointed out a contradiction in Lawal’s argument, claiming that Atiku was both politically irrelevant and politically all‑powerful. “According to his own account, Atiku was inactive, unpopular, and absent from the field. Yet Nigerians are simultaneously expected to believe that this same supposedly dormant politician somehow orchestrated a nationwide conspiracy across 8,809 wards,” the statement read.

“Such arguments are not merely implausible; they are insulting to the intelligence of party members whose democratic choices he now seeks to invalidate simply because they did not favour his preferred candidate,” the statement said.

The statement accused Lawal of acting as a “political mercenary,” spreading narratives designed to undermine Atiku’s standing among Christian communities in the Middle Belt and other constituencies where the former Vice President retains considerable goodwill.

Atiku also refuted Lawal’s claim that he had “absolutely nothing,” arguing that the remark could only come from a man blinded by animosity. The statement highlighted Atiku’s role in liberalising Nigeria’s telecommunications sector, his contributions to economic reforms, private sector development, education, and national growth as evidence of a record that speaks for itself.

“As far as we are concerned, this is the final response to Mr. Lawal’s increasingly desperate attempts to remain politically relevant through sensationalism and character assassination. Nigerians have heard him. Nigerians have seen him. And Nigerians have judged for themselves,” Shaibu said. “The facts remain unchanged. The truth remains intact. And no amount of bitterness can alter either.”

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