Atiku Abubakar has been declared the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate for the next general election after securing 1,846,370 votes in the party’s primaries.
The former vice-president defeated fellow aspirants Rotimi Amaechi, who polled 504,117 votes, and Mohammed Hayatu-Deen with 177,120 votes.
A total of 2,527,977 votes were cast out of 3,113,599 registered members, according to the final results released by the party.
Accepting the nomination, Atiku said he was "humbled and excited" by the honour of leading the ADC into the 2027 election.
He described the party as a coalition built through "hard work, immense sacrifices and compromises" to rescue Nigeria’s democracy.
"We demonstrated that while democracy is being strangled and squashed by the ruling party and its oppressive and anti-democratic government, democracy is alive and well in the African Democratic Congress," he said.
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Atiku accused the APC government, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and elements in the judiciary of engineering leadership crises in opposition parties.
He cited the continued detention of former Kaduna Governor Nasir El-Rufai as an example of what he called political harassment, despite court orders granting bail.
He warned that any further attempt by the Presidency, INEC or the judiciary to interfere in the ADC’s affairs "will be fiercely resisted," saying "Enough is enough."
The former vice-president congratulated his fellow contestants, saying the party must now unite to "pull our country and our people out of the destructive grip of a corrupt, incompetent and polarising APC government."
He thanked the primary elections committee, party organs, stakeholders and volunteers for organising what he called peaceful, free, fair and transparent primaries.
Atiku said the focus would now shift to campaigning to "rescue our country and its long-suffering people" from the current government.
INEC, international observers and party leaders also commended the exercise.
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