Former Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar, has been declared winner of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential primary election held across the country.
It was reported that Atiku won the party’s presidential ticket after polling 1,846,370 votes.
He defeated former Minister of Transportation and ex-Rivers State governor, Rotimi Amaechi, who got 504,117 votes.
The result was declared following the collation of votes from the party’s nationwide primary.
After the declaration, Atiku said: “I wish to convey my profound appreciation for the privilege you have bestowed upon me, to lead our great party, the African Democratic Congress, into the next elections as its Presidential Candidate. I am truly humbled and excited at this unique honour.
“We showed that while the ruling party and its oppressive and anti-democratic government are throttling and choking democracy, there is democracy in the African Democratic Congress. In our party, members are free to express their views, to have ambition and to contest for elective positions in a free, fair and transparent process.
“Our great party is a coalition built on hard work, huge sacrifices and compromises, led by our determination to rescue the democracy of our country which is under its biggest threat since the return to democratic rule in 1999.
“As I speak, virtually all opposition political parties in the country have a leadership crisis engineered by the APC government, the INEC and elements in the judiciary. And opposition figures continue to be harassed and intimidated, including those languishing in detention, such as Mallam Nasir El-Rufai who distinguished himself as a public servant, including as a Minister and two-term Governor of Kaduna State. Despite court orders granting him bail, he has been in detention for three months. He has been denied the right to celebrate two important religious holidays with his family, besides being denied the opportunity to be by his mother’s side as she took her last breath. All because he is a leading opposition figure! This cruelty has to stop.
“The government continues to harass, intimidate and coerce opposition politicians to join the APC using the security agencies as well as the agencies that were set up by a previous government to fight corruption. In this government, once you join the APC, the harassment stops and the charges against you disappear magically. This abuse of power has to end.
“In the process of forming this coalition, great care was taken to ensure that due diligence was done. But the government and the INEC keep on undermining it, even to the extent of trying to deregister it. Let me caution that any attempt to interfere in the affairs of the party by the Presidency, INEC and judiciary will be fiercely resisted. That’s enough.
“I congratulate my fellow contestants for this ticket to represent our great party in the elections slated for early next year. I know that you are motivated by your patriotism and commitment to a better Nigeria and a better life for our people.
“I know that, like me, you are deeply worried about the rapid descent of our country into economic disaster, catastrophic insecurity, extreme nepotism, political intolerance and the drive towards a one-party state by the current government and its party. I thank you for your positive contribution to this democratic process.
“This is not the time for celebration, I must say at this juncture. None of us lost because we are one party, and we all need to recognize the fierce urgency of the moment. “We have to unite therefore as we pledged before this process to work to pull our country and our people out of the destructive grip of a corrupt, incompetent and polarising APC government.
“I thank the Primary elections Committee for conducting peaceful, free, fair and transparent primaries. I thank the various leadership organs of our party, the various stakeholders and volunteers for their hard work and dedication and all our party members and supporters for their efforts, patience and conduct during the process.”
“With the primary season behind us, the real hard work is about to begin. “We have to prepare to campaign hard to win the next general elections in order to begin the difficult process of rescuing our country and its long suffering people from this government.”
