Details Emerge As Atiku Meets ADC Factions in Jigawa Amid Court Cases

The presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, Atiku Abubakar, has intervened in the lingering dispute between two rival factions of the party in Jigawa State.

This was just as he directed separate groups to withdraw the court cases filed against each other over the party’s governorship ticket.

Politics Nigeria learnt that the intervention followed a reconciliation meeting involving the two camps, which agreed to maintain the status quo and recognise the list of candidates already submitted to and published by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

A member of the ADC National Executive Committee and Northwest Organising Secretary, Ali Tukur, confirmed the development on Wednesday.

Tukur said the meeting was led by Atiku, the party’s National Chairman, Senator David Mark, and other senior leaders who sought to resolve the dispute and prevent the internal disagreement from further affecting the party’s preparations for the 2027 elections.

He said the two factional leaders, Senator Sabo Muhammad Nakudu and Hon. Bashir Adamu Jimbo, accepted the terms of the reconciliation and signed an agreement to bring their legal battles to an end.

The dispute had centred on the party’s candidate lists submitted to the INEC portal.

According to Tukur, Nakudu’s camp instituted a case against the Jimbo faction over the list, including the choice of governorship running mate and some National and State Assembly candidates.

The Jimbo faction, in turn, challenged Nakudu’s eligibility to contest the governorship election, alleging irregularities in the primary election that produced him as the ADC candidate.

Tukur said the intervention by Atiku and other national leaders had created an opportunity for both sides to resolve their differences and begin a fresh reconciliation process within the Jigawa chapter.

Atiku, speaking after the meeting, welcomed the agreement between the two factions and called for unity ahead of the elections.

He said internal contests were an inevitable part of democratic processes but stressed that political organisations must be able to reconcile differences after such contests.

“At the end of the day, the task ahead is greater than any individual ambition, and it demands that every member of our party bring their strength, experience and commitment to the collective cause,” Atiku said.

He added that the Jigawa chapter remained part of one ADC family and urged the factions to work together in the interest of the party.

The reconciliation in Jigawa comes as the ADC faces another nomination dispute in Adamawa State.

The Federal High Court in Abuja, in a judgment delivered by Justice Chigozie Onah on September 17, recognised Abubakar Bashir as the winner of the ADC primary for the Yola North/Yola South/Girei Federal Constituency and nullified the nomination of incumbent lawmaker Abubakar Babazango as the party’s candidate for the 2027 election.

Bashir had polled 33,931 votes in the May 21 primary, ahead of six other aspirants. Babazango finished with 4,359 votes, according to the results cited in the court proceedings.

The court held that the process through which Babazango was subsequently accepted and published as the winner was inconsistent with the ADC Constitution and its guidelines.

Justice Onah relied on Section 12 of the ADC Guidelines for the Conduct of Primary Elections, which provides that a declared winner can be replaced only where the winner dies or withdraws from the race. The court found that neither circumstance applied to Bashir.

The court consequently directed INEC to recognise Bashir as the ADC candidate for the federal constituency and restrained Babazango from presenting himself as the party’s candidate.

It also ordered the ADC to recognise Bashir as its duly elected candidate and awarded N1 million in costs against the party and another N1 million against Babazango.