Atiku replies Babachir, dismisses ADC primary rigging claims

The camp of the African Democratic Congress presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has launched a scathing attack on former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, over his criticism of the party’s presidential primary, accusing him of making unsubstantiated allegations and attempting to discredit a democratic process he could not influence. Lawal, announcing his resignation from the party on Monday, slammed Atiku for allegedly influencing the outcome of the party’s primaries held across the country. However, in a statement issued on behalf of the former Vice President by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, the Atiku camp rejected claims that the ADC presidential primary was manipulated, insisting that the exercise reflected the will of party members across the country. Lawal had questioned the credibility of the exercise and alleged that the process was compromised. In response, the Atiku camp accused Lawal of attempting to malign both the party and its members without evidence. “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 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.” 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