By Pascal Ibe

Introduction

The political season in Nigeria is here, ahead of the 2027 general elections, with supporters of main political parties cooking up stories to make each other’s candidates less favourable to contest next year’s election.

The African Democratic Congress (ADC), in its part, is also gearing up for the election, but is facing a leadership crisis after an appellate court refused to recognise the David-Mark-led leadership of the party.

This faction of the party is the most popular and it has the former Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar as its presidential candidate for 2027.

The fate of the David Mark-led ADC is now hanging by a thread, after it approached the Supreme Court for a final decision.

Claim

Social media users on the X platform, have published a video of the people who claimed to be the ADC executives in Adamawa State.

In the video clip, they suspended Atiku and other party members over alleged anti-party activities 

An X user, @PO_GrassRootM (Peter Obi Grassroot Mobilisation), posted the video on Wednesday, alongside the claim that the suspension of Atiku by the Adamawa ADC exco in the clip was recent.

Part of the caption to the post reads, “BREAKING: Adamawa State ADC factional Chairman, Raji Sulaiman Zumo, has announced the suspension of Atiku Abubakar and Babachir Lawal from the party in the state over alleged anti-party activities.”

Many comments on the post suggested that users on the X platform, have already believed or agreed that the recent suspension of Atiku by ADC was true.

Read comments here and here.

This is the reason why FACTWATCH Nigeria decided to run a check on the post.

Verification

When simple keywords like, “ ADC suspends Atiku ”, were searched on Google, results showed that the ADC’s suspension of the former Nigerian vice president took place in April 2026, before the party’s presidential primary in May.

According to reports, a faction of the ADC in Adamawa State suspended Atiku and former Secretary to the Government of the Federation Babachir Lawal, citing alleged anti-party activities.

The faction also suspended Sadiq Ibrahim, chairman of the party’s transition committee in the state.

The factional chairman, Raji Zumo, announced the decision at a press conference on Monday in Yola.

“No individual, regardless of his status or influence, is above the law or the constitution of the African Democratic Congress, as long as he is a card-carrying member of the party,”  Zumo said.

Check out this story here 

Some Nigerian television stations shared the video in April here.

However, days later, the ADC National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, in an interview with Vanguard, said the reported suspension of the former Vice President by the faction of the party in Adamawa State does not stand.

The party insists the group behind the move lacks the authority to take such action, and that the announcement carries no weight within its ranks.

Verdict

The claim that the ADC recently suspended Atiku is MISLEADING.

Currently, he is the presidential candidate of the ADC for the 2027.