Babachir Lawal’s Rigging Allegation Is Politically Motivated – Atiku

Atiku Abubakar

The camp of African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has dismissed allegations of manipulation in the party’s presidential primary. Recall that former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, recently made the allegation, and Nigerians have been reacting.

Insisting that no credible evidence was presented to support the claims, Atikus camp described Lawal’s accusations as unsubstantiated and politically motivated.

The former Vice President maintained that the exercise was transparent and reflected the will of party members across the country.

A statement read, “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 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.

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.

What appears to have truly unsettled Mr Lawal is not the conduct of the primaries but the outcome. Democracy guarantees participation, not victory. One cannot celebrate democracy when it produces a preferred result and suddenly condemn it as rigged when it does not.”

WOW.