The camp of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has denied allegations made by a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, insisting that the former All Progressives Congress chieftain failed to provide any evidence to support his claims of irregularities in the African Democratic Congress presidential primary process.
In a statement issued on Tuesday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku dismissed Lawal’s accusations as “an unfortunate cocktail of bitterness, conjecture, and political revisionism masquerading as public interest.”
The response followed Lawal’s recent television interview in which he questioned the credibility of the ADC presidential primary and alleged manipulation of the process.
According to Atiku’s camp, Nigerians who watched the interview were presented with “a curious spectacle” of sweeping allegations unsupported by facts.
“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.
“He arrived with accusations. He left with accusations. In between, the evidence never arrived,” Shaibu said.
The former vice president’s spokesman argued that Lawal relied heavily on claims involving unnamed sources and unverifiable accounts rather than presenting concrete proof.
“Ordinarily, one would expect a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation and former National Vice Chairman of a political party to understand the elementary distinction between evidence and suspicion. Instead, Nigerians were treated to stories about unnamed callers, unnamed officials, unnamed witnesses, and unnamed conspirators,” he stated.
The statement also suggested that Lawal’s criticisms stemmed from disappointment over the outcome of the ADC primary.
“What the interview ultimately revealed was not a whistleblower exposing wrongdoing but a disappointed political actor struggling to come to terms with the failure of his preferred candidate.
“By his own admission, Mr Lawal openly aligned himself with another aspirant long before the conclusion of the process. He campaigned for that candidate, promoted that candidate, and publicly believed that candidate should emerge victorious. Having failed in that objective, he now seeks to dress personal disappointment in the borrowed robes of moral outrage,” Shaibu said.
Atiku’s camp further faulted Lawal for what it described as contradictory claims about the former vice president’s political relevance.
“Perhaps the most laughable contradiction in Mr Lawal’s performance was his attempt to portray Atiku Abubakar as both politically irrelevant and politically omnipotent at the same time.
“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 said.
The statement maintained that such allegations underestimated the judgment of party members who participated in the process.
“What makes this theory particularly absurd is that it requires Nigerians to believe that thousands of ADC members across the federation abandoned their own judgment and surrendered their votes to an invisible conspiracy directed by a man whom Mr Lawal simultaneously describes as politically inactive,” Shaibu argued.
Beyond the dispute over the primary, Atiku’s spokesman seized on comments reportedly made by Lawal regarding his relationship with President Bola Tinubu.
“More revealing, however, was Mr Lawal’s astonishing confession on national television that if he ever needed money, all he had to do was call President Tinubu and the money would reach him before he got home.
“Nigerians heard him. Nigerians understood him. And Nigerians can draw their own conclusions from the implications of such a remarkable declaration,” the statement added.
Shaibu further accused Lawal of attempting to undermine Atiku’s standing among Christian communities in the Middle Belt and other parts of the country where the former vice president enjoys support.
He described the former SGF’s intervention as an exercise driven more by grievance than reason.
“The tragedy of Mr Lawal’s intervention is that he appears to have become so consumed by bitterness that he no longer recognises the difference between evidence and speculation. Every outcome he dislikes is rigging. Every defeat is a conspiracy. Every disagreement becomes proof of manipulation. This is not the language of reason. It is the language of grievance,” he said.
The statement also rejected Lawal’s assertion that Atiku had “absolutely nothing” to offer politically, pointing instead to the former vice president’s role in economic reforms and the liberalisation of Nigeria’s telecommunications sector during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
“Nigerians know Atiku Abubakar’s record. They know his role in the liberalisation of the telecommunications sector, his contributions to economic reforms, private sector development, education, and national growth,” Shaibu stated.
The latest exchange highlights growing tensions within opposition political circles ahead of the 2027 electoral cycle, with disagreements over party structures, leadership influence and candidate selection increasingly playing out in the public arena.
While Lawal has questioned the integrity of the ADC primary process, Atiku’s camp insists the allegations remain unproven and politically motivated.
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