Dr Nicholas Msheliza, chairman of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) electoral committee for Adamawa State, has accused former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Babachir Lawal of personally directing the rigging of the party’s presidential primary in his home state last month.
He also threatened to expose documented evidence supporting the accusation.
This comes only days after Lawal accused former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of rigging his path to become the ADC’s presidential candidate.
Msheliza, who also served as the returning officer for the Adamawa primaries, said in a strongly worded statement yesterday that Lawal called him after the results were compiled and ordered him to reverse the outcome in Hong Local Government Area, Lawal’s hometown, in favour of his preferred candidate and businessman, Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, over Atiku.
“When Babachir Lawal got wind of the results, he called and requested that I reverse the results to favour his candidate. I refused to carry out his directive,” Dr Msheliza stated.
According to him, Atiku won Hong Local Government Area with 11,991 votes, while Hayatu-Deen received 2,493 votes and former Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi received 377 votes, which contradicted Lawal’s public claims.
Lawal said in a Politics Nigeria interview titled “I’ve Eliminated APC and ADC…” that a returning officer falsified results from a local government to change 20,000 votes for Hayatu-Deen into a win for Atiku.
He claimed that incident as part of his justification for quitting from the ADC on Monday, June 2, 2026, just one week after the party’s presidential primary on May 25, 2026, which delivered Atiku as the ADC’s nominee for the 2027 general elections.
Msheliza, who identified himself as the very officer Lawal had referenced, said within one hour of his refusal to reverse the results, Lawal unilaterally dissolved the duly constituted electoral committee for Hong Local Government from his Abuja office and assembled a parallel committee without consulting him as the state electoral chairman, which proceeded to conduct what he described as an illegal exercise across Hong, Madagali, Michika, and Mubi North local governments.
“This was the Babachir Lawal committee that went on to illegally carry out his rigging assignment in Hong, Madagali, Michika and Mubi North Local Government Areas without any ward electoral materials given to them,” he said, adding that the original results from Hong had already been entered before Lawal’s parallel committee arrived with what he called “concocted results”.
He asked Lawal to reveal the result sheets he claimed to have, stating he would welcome a public comparison with the official Adamawa State election committee’s results.
He also questioned Lawal’s moral character, pointing out that the former SGF would periodically position himself as a man of faith.
“With the esteemed office he occupied in the party and a pastor, which he sometimes claims to be, I never thought in my wildest imagination that Babachir Lawal could descend so low to the level of distorting facts in order to defend his inability and lack of capacity to deliver,” Dr Msheliza said.
The returning officer cautioned that a more detailed declaration was on the way, promising “a plethora of unassailable evidence, including unethical interferences, to show the rigging processes the self-styled pastor unleashed on Adamawa State.”
The exchange represents a new and explosive escalation in the aftermath of Lawal’s departure from the ADC. Atiku’s team had previously dismissed Lawal’s charges as unfounded, while presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga triumphantly declared that Lawal had caused more damage to Atiku than any criticism from the administration could have.
Atiku’s supporters also accused Lawal of political inconsistency, pointing out that he had not questioned the election of his cousin, Omar Suleiman, as the ADC governorship candidate in Adamawa State through the same primary process he now condemns as fraudulent, arguing that Nigerians had the right to question whether the process was only credible when it favoured his family.
Hayatu-Deen, for his part, has subsequently ruled out opposing Atiku’s nomination as ADC presidential candidate, citing party unity and the greater goal of establishing a serious opposition ahead of the 2027 elections.
