Atiku’s 2027 Ambition Faces Fresh Hurdle as ADC Factional Chairman Disowns Presidential Ticket
Atiku’s 2027 Bid Suffers Fresh Blow as ADC Factional Chair Rejects Presidential Ticket State, Comrade Patrick Obianyo, that Atiku is not the presidential candidate of the party.
Following the development, the status of Atiku Abubakar’s presidential candidacy under the ADC ahead of the 2027 general election appears increasingly uncertain, as divisions within the party’s leadership structure continue to generate controversy over the legitimacy of the congresses, convention and primary elections that produce him.
According to Obianyo, two court judgments,at the High Court and the Court of Appeal—ruled that the caretaker executive of the party led by former Senate President David Mark lacked the authority to conduct congresses and conventions, insisting that such powers rested with the elected state chairmen of the party.
He argued that, on the basis of those judgments, Atiku Abubakar could not legitimately lay claim to the ADC presidential ticket.
“At this very moment, we have a kind of faction in the party and, as far as I am concerned, Atiku is not my candidate. I say this because Atiku, incidentally, is David Mark’s candidate, and I am not a chairman under David Mark.
“We are legacy chairmen, and David Mark came in as caretaker chairman. That is what they still are up till today. They came in and said that we should leave the party, and we said no.
“We went to court and we won. They went to the Court of Appeal and we won because the court said that we are the authentic chairmen of the party, while David Mark is a caretaker chairman and has no right to conduct congresses and conventions. Those judgments are subsisting.”he said.
Obianyo further contended that the implication of the court rulings was that the congresses, convention and primary elections conducted under the leadership of David Mark were legally invalid.
“So, going by the two court judgments, the congresses and conventions, as well as the primary elections conducted under David Mark, are a nullity. Hence, the primary election that produced Atiku Abubakar as the presidential candidate is also a nullity,” he said.
He said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was joined as a party in the legal proceedings but chose to remain neutral in the dispute.
According to him, he sympathised with individuals who had been parading themselves as candidates of the party, arguing that they could ultimately be affected by the unresolved leadership dispute.
“I pity those who have been parading themselves as candidates of the party because they are wasting their time,” he said.
Obianyo further stated that INEC had yet to publish the ADC’s official list of candidates, adding that if the electoral commission eventually decides to publish Atiku Abubakar’s name as the party’s presidential candidate, his faction would await the final determination of the matter by the Supreme Court.
He explained that, by law, political parties would be given a window within which they could upload the names of their candidates, from the State Houses of Assembly to the presidential level.
Obianyo also addressed the circumstances surrounding the reported departure of the party’s former presidential hopeful, Mr Peter Obi, from the ADC, suggesting that Obi may have concluded that the party was unlikely to nominate him as its presidential candidate.
“Peter Obi would have been in a better position to say why he left the party. But, being an insider in the party, he was outside the party and was negotiating that he should be given the ticket of the party,” he said.
“At some point, he was given the concession to nominate a national executive member of the party, and he chose Chinedu Idigo as the National Organising Secretary of the party. But he was somehow sceptical about being a member of the party.
“At some point, he felt perhaps that, at the national level, Atiku appeared to be better favoured as the presidential candidate of the party because the national secretariat of the party was donated by Atiku.
“David Mark, at one of our meetings, said that he was reluctant to accept that office and that he called all of them, including Peter Obi. They all said that he should take the office that was donated by Atiku. So, Peter Obi felt that Atiku had taken over the party structures.” he said .
Obianyo further claimed that David Mark had at some point warned individuals seeking political tickets from the party that they could not remain outside the party while simultaneously negotiating its presidential ticket.
“Even at some point, David Mark said that he was warning them that you cannot be outside the party and be negotiating tickets. He added that he was only allowing two persons to complete their governorship tenure and that if they did not want to join the party officially, they should stop talking about the party.
“Maybe Peter Obi did not play his roles in the party very well, or perhaps the party was more favourably disposed towards Atiku than him,” he said.
On the position of the founder of the ADC, Chief Okey Nwosu, Obianyo alleged that Nwosu embarked on negotiations concerning the party without the full involvement of members of the National Executive Committee (NEC) and some members of the National Working Committee (NWC).
“When these people came, they were told that there was nobody in the party and that they should take over the party. That is the problem of the party today,” he stated.
The latest comments have further highlighted the deepening leadership and legal contest within the ADC, with the legitimacy of its internal party processes, including congresses, conventions and the presidential primary, emerging as a potentially decisive issue ahead of the 2027 general election.
