Atiku defeats Amaechi, Hayatu-Deen to clinch ADC presidential ticket

Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has won the presidential primary election of the African Democratic Congress (ADC).

Tunde Ogbeha, the returning officer of the ADC presidential primary election, announced Abubakar as the winner of the primary poll on Wednesday night.

Abubakar polled 1,846,370 votes to defeat two other contenders — Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, former managing director of the defunct FSB International Bank, and Rotimi Amaechi, former governor of Rivers.

Amaechi polled 504,117 votes while Hayatu-Deen got 177,120 votes.

Speaking after he was presented with the ADC flag as the party’s standard-bearer for the 2027 elections, Abubakar asked Hayatu-Deen and Amaechi to “close ranks and join him in the fight to rescue Nigeria’s democracy”.

He added that there is no winner and no vanquished in the contest.

David Mark, ADC national chairman, said the contest was “free, fair, credible and worthy of democratic standards”.

He said he came under “intense pressure to tilt the direction” of the presidential primary.

“We did not work towards a predetermined outcome,” he said.

The ADC presidential primary was marred by controversy, as Amaechi and Hayatu-Deen rejected the results over alleged irregularities and voter disenfranchisement.

Abubakar will be squaring off against President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and Peter Obi of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) in the 2027 presidential election.(TheCable)