Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has won the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential ticket for the 2027 general elections after a decisive victory in the party’s direct primary election.
Returning officer Tunde Ogbeha announced the final results on Wednesday night, May 27, 2026, at the party’s national collation centre at the Transcorp Hilton in Abuja.
Atiku 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, Atiku asked Hayatu-Deen and Amaechi to “close ranks and join me 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.
Atiku 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.
