Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir David Lawal, has announced his exit from the African Democratic Congress, ADC, alleging that the party’s just-concluded primaries were “massively rigged” in favour of a chieftain he refers to as “Kachalla Abubakar Atiku.”
Dateline Nigeria reports that the identity of “Kachalla Abubakar Atiku” as used by Lawal could not be independently verified at press time. But former Vice President Atiku Abubakar was declared winner of the ADC presidential primaries.
The ADC has yet to issue any official response to the allegations of Babachir.
In a ppst on his verified Facebook page titled “The Kachalla Series Part 1” on June 1, 2026, Lawal said he could not remain in a party he believes will serve as a “rigging machine” for Atiku in the 2027 general elections.
“I am exiting the ADC because its just concluded primaries were at all levels massively rigged in favour of Kachalla Abubakar Atiku,” he wrote. “Results were just written or rewritten to favour him and his coven. Even where they allowed some semblance of election to hold, the winners were simply replaced with members of his syndicate. In the real sense it was a disgraceful charade.”
Lawal argued that working for Atiku would hand President Bola Tinubu an “automatic ticket to a second term.” He said he believes Tinubu, “as bad as he currently is,” would “comparatively speaking, end up a better Nigerian president than Kachalla Atiku could ever be.”
He also raised concerns about governance and family influence, warning that with Atiku’s “close to 25 adult children, 6 wives… and a heavily shrunk decapitated business empire,” Nigerians should “foresee 25 Seyi Tinubus and 6 Remi Tinubus.”
Criticizing Northern political actors who supported Atiku’s emergence, Lawal said: “I would have thought that Northerners who insist on a northern president would be thinking of one that will stop the downward spiral into poverty and insecurity not an ineptocrat like Kachalla Atiku. Alas, a leopard cannot change its spots. The North, it seems, is perpetually doomed to self-harm.”
Announcing his next steps, Lawal said he will “retire to my village farm” while consulting with “like-minded colleagues on how to stop this incompetent octogenarian from coming close to the presidential office.” He predicted that Tinubu’s “ruthless and superior rigging machine” would defeat Atiku in 2027.
Lawal served as SGF under President Muhammadu Buhari from 2015 to 2017 before his removal over allegations of contract fraud, which he has consistently denied.
