Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has emerged as the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) for the 2027 general election after winning the party’s primary election.
The result was announced on Wednesday night by Tunde Ogbeha, the returning officer for the ADC presidential primary.
According to the official results, Atiku secured 1,846,370 votes to defeat his closest rivals, Rotimi Amaechi, former Governor of Rivers State, who polled 504,117 votes, and Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, former Managing Director of the defunct FSB International Bank, who received 177,120 votes.
Speaking after receiving the party’s flag as the ADC’s standard-bearer, Atiku called on his opponents to unite behind the party’s campaign ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
He urged Amaechi and Hayatu-Deen to “close ranks and join me in the fight to rescue Nigeria’s democracy”.
“There is no winner and no vanquished in this contest,” Atiku said.
David Mark, the National Chairman of the ADC, described the exercise as “free, fair, credible and worthy of democratic standards”.
Mark said the party leadership resisted attempts to influence the outcome of the primary.
“We did not work towards a predetermined outcome,” he said, adding that he had come under “intense pressure to tilt the direction” of the contest.
The primary, however, was overshadowed by controversy as both Amaechi and Hayatu-Deen rejected the outcome, alleging irregularities and voter disenfranchisement during the exercise.
Atiku is expected to face President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peter Obi of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) in the 2027 presidential election.