Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has made a passionate call for unity within the African Democratic Congress (ADC) after winning the party’s presidential primary for the 2027 election.
Atiku disclosed this on Wednesday in Abuja shortly after he was declared winner of the party’s presidential primary election.
The former vice-president scored 1,846,370 votes to defeat Rotimi Amaechi, former governor of Rivers state, who secured 504,117 votes, and Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, former managing director of the defunct FSB International Bank, who garnered 177,120 votes.
Speaking to the party members after the primary, Atiku stated that the focus of the ADC should now be on building a united front against the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the 2027 elections.
“I must state at this juncture that this is not the time to celebrate. No one was defeated because we are one party and we all need to recognise the fierce urgency of the moment,” he said.
”Therefore, we have to unite, as we pledged before this process, to work to pull our country and our people out of the destructive grip of a corrupt, incompetent and polarising APC government.”
Atiku accused APC of orchestrating internal crises within opposition parties in order to weaken political opponents before the next general election.
“As I speak, virtually all opposition political parties in the country have a leadership crisis engineered by the APC government, the INEC and elements in the judiciary.
“And opposition figures continue to be harassed and intimidated, including those languishing in detention, such as mallam Nasir el-Rufai, who distinguished himself as a public servant, including as a Minister and two-term Governor of Kaduna State. He has been in detention for three months despite court orders granting him bail.”
The former vice president alleged that anti-corruption agencies and security institutions were being used to pressure opposition politicians into defecting to the APC.
“The government continues to harass, intimidate, and coerce opposition politicians to join the APC using the security agencies, as well as the agencies which were set up by a previous government to fight corruption,” he said.
“Under this government, once a person joins the APC, the harassment ceases, and the charges against them magically disappear. This abuse of power must stop.”
He further accused the federal government and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of attempting to undermine the opposition coalition.
“Yet the government and the INEC continue to undermine it, even trying to deregister it.
“Let me warn that any further attempt to interfere in the affairs of the party by the Presidency, INEC, and judiciary will be fiercely resisted. Enough is enough.”
Atiku blamed the Tinubu administration for the worsening insecurity, rising debt profile, and economic hardship across the country.
“The savings from subsidy removal has not been accounted for and the economic hardship resulting from the action has been unbearable,” he said.
