Phrank Shaibu, the Special Assistant on media to former vice president Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the ADC, has riposted on the latest allegations made by the former SGF, Babachir David Lawal during his interview aired on Channels television on Sunday evening.
In his interview, Lawal doubled down on his attacks on Atiku.
According to him, the former vice president had allegedly rigged the ADC presidential primary despite being unpopular
In a statement he issued on Tuesday, Shaibu described Lawal’s latest allegations as an unfortunate cocktail of bitterness, conjecture, and political revisionism masquerading as public interest. He noted that what was presented as a serious political intervention ultimately collapsed into an extended exercise in speculation and unsubstantiated claims
.His statement reads:
“Nigerians who watched Mr Lawal’s recent television interview would know that he is bereft of proof and evidence regarding his allegations.”
“Mr Lawal spent nearly an hour making grave accusations about the conduct of the ADC presidential primary. Yet he failed to produce a single piece of verifiable evidence. No document. No petition. No result sheet. No witness statement. No recording. Nothing. For a man who repeatedly insisted that proof was ‘everywhere’, his performance was a masterclass in making extraordinary allegations without meeting the elementary obligation of substantiating them.
“He arrived with accusations. He left with accusations. In between, the evidence never arrived.
“Perhaps the most laughable contradiction in Mr Lawal’s performance was his attempt to portray Atiku Abubakar as both politically irrelevant and politically omnipotent at the same time. According to his own account, Atiku was inactive, unpopular, and absent from the field. Yet Nigerians are simultaneously expected to believe that this same supposedly dormant politician somehow orchestrated a nationwide conspiracy across 8,809 wards.
“What makes this theory particularly absurd is that it requires Nigerians to believe that thousands of ADC members across the federation abandoned their own judgment and surrendered their votes to an invisible conspiracy directed by a man whom Mr. Lawal simultaneously describes as politically inactive. Such arguments are not merely implausible; they are insulting to the intelligence of party members whose democratic choices he now seeks to invalidate simply because they did not favour his preferred candidate.
“One is left to wonder whether Mr Lawal was describing a presidential aspirant or a mythical political deity endowed with powers of omnipresence. Such theories belong not in serious political discourse but in the realm of fantasy.
“More revealing, however, was Mr Lawal’s astonishing confession on national television that if he ever needed money, all he had to do was call President Tinubu and the money would reach him before he got home. Nigerians heard him. Nigerians understood him. And Nigerians can draw their own conclusions from the implications of such a remarkable declaration.
“Increasingly, Mr Lawal cuts the figure of a political mercenary, eagerly retailing narratives carefully designed to discredit Atiku Abubakar before Christian communities in the Middle Belt and other constituencies where the former vice president continues to enjoy considerable goodwill. His latest crusade, therefore, raises legitimate questions about motive, especially when viewed against his own public declarations.
“The tragedy of Mr Lawal’s intervention is that he appears to have become so consumed by bitterness that he no longer recognises the difference between evidence and speculation. Every outcome he dislikes is rigging. Every defeat is a conspiracy. Every disagreement becomes proof of manipulation. This is not the language of reason. It is the language of grievance.
“More unfortunate was his descent into reckless personal abuse. Unable to defend his allegations with facts, he resorted to insults. Yet history teaches us that insults are often the last refuge of those who have run out of arguments.
“Perhaps the most revealing moment of the entire interview was Mr. Lawal’s astonishing declaration that Atiku Abubakar has ‘absolutely nothing.’ Such a statement could only have come from a man blinded by animosity. Nigerians know Atiku Abubakar’s record. They know his role in the liberalisation of the telecommunications sector and his contributions to economic reforms, private sector development, education, and national growth. They know that political relevance sustained across three decades and multiple political generations cannot be built on ‘nothing’.
“Indeed, the most devastating rebuttal to Babachir Lawal’s allegations came not from Atiku Abubakar, the ADC, or any member of the public. It came from Babachir Lawal himself. Given every opportunity to substantiate his claims, he left the studio exactly as he entered it — with accusations but without proof, with outrage but without evidence, and with bitterness but without credibility. By the end, Nigerians were left not with a scandal, but with a spectacle.
“Mr Lawal is entitled to his opinions. He is entitled to his preferences. He is even entitled to his disappointments. What he is not entitled to are his own facts.
“As far as we are concerned, this is the final response to Mr. Lawal’s increasingly desperate attempts to remain politically relevant through sensationalism and character assassination. Nigerians have heard him. Nigerians have seen him. And Nigerians have judged for themselves.
“The facts remain unchanged. The truth remains intact. And no amount of bitterness can alter either,” he stated.
Still on the same subject, the Deputy National Financial Secretary of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, Oladimeji Fabiyi, while speaking on a program on Symfoni TV, alleged that the entirety of Babachir Lawal’s angry vituperations were as a result of Atiku’s refusal to provide N5 billion, which Lawal requested from him.
Fabiyi disclosed that the ex-Secretary to the Government of the Federation requested the money from former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, to support his governorship ambition in Adamawa State.
Fabiyi is quoted as saying, “Babachir wanted to be governor of Adamawa state. Atiku had no objection to it.
“Atiku told him, ‘if you want to be (governor) no problem, but follow the democratic process, go through the primaries and all that. Then he (Babachir Lawal) came back for N5 billion from Atiku to support his governorship ambition and Atiku stated he did not have. That’s what led to all of these things.”
Fabiyi further disclosed that most of the crises the party faced in Adamawa state were traceable to the actions of Babachir Lawal. He said: He said, “When it was time for congresses, Atiku equally made so many concessions, and that concession almost cost Atiku his leadership in Adamawa because Adamawa ADC lost credible people that would have shored up the strength of the party because Atiku allowed what Babachir Lawal wanted in Adamawa.
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