No evidence yet to confirm Hayatu-Deen’s rigging claims — ADC

By Lawrence Agbo

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has said it has not seen any evidence to validate allegations of vote rigging raised by presidential aspirant Mohammed Hayatu-Deen during the party’s ongoing presidential primary process.

Speaking at the ADC presidential primary election collation centre, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, stated that the party could neither confirm nor dismiss the allegations at this stage because collation of results was still ongoing.

According to him, the party had not observed any pattern suggesting widespread manipulation or irregularities in the exercise.

“We don’t have any evidence to be able to support his position or to deny his position because we’ve not collated the results. We’ve not noticed any pattern in the result, and we’ve not seen enough to be able to establish a pattern,” Abdullahi said.

His remarks followed Hayatu-Deen’s announcement that he would boycott the official declaration of the presidential primary results over claims of widespread vote rigging across the country.

The ADC spokesperson also disclosed that officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were expected at the collation centre later in the night.

He maintained that INEC had monitored the party’s congresses and primary processes conducted across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

“We are waiting for them. They will be here tonight. They’ve attended all our congresses, all the processes across the country in all the 36 states and the FCT,” Abdullahi added.

The ADC presidential contest has drawn major political figures, including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, former Rivers State governor Rotimi Amaechi, and Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, making the exercise one of the most closely watched opposition primaries ahead of the 2027 elections.