A splinter group of the African Democratic Congress in Adamawa State has removed former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and ex-Secretary to the Government of the Federation Babachir Lawal from its fold. Raji Sulaiman Zumo, who heads the faction, announced the decision on Monday.
The move is linked to a wider leadership tussle rocking the party. A separate bloc led by Nafiu Bala Gombe insists it controls the national chairmanship, a dispute that has already forced the Independent National Electoral Commission to withdraw recognition from the faction formerly led by ex-Senate President David Mark.
Neither Atiku nor Lawal has publicly reacted to the suspension at the time of publication. The electoral commission has yet to indicate whether the latest internal action will affect the ADC's standing on the ballot.
By suspending two of Nigeria's most visible northern politicians, the Adamawa ADC faction is gambling on relevance rather than exercising real power. Atiku left the party weeks ago and is courting new allies elsewhere, while Babachir Lawal's clout faded with his 2017 dismissal; the expulsion is theatre aimed at grabbing headlines, not ballots.
The episode captures a chronic weakness in Nigeria's smaller parties: without access to state resources or a defining ideology, they fracture the moment ambitious figures jostle for control. INEC's refusal to recognise any of the contending boards freezes the ADC out of 2027 planning, turning internal elections into zero-sum battles over a hollowed-out brand.
For Nigerians, the takeaway is that the political market is already repositioning for the next cycle. Expect more carpet-crossing, more micro-parties and more symbolic suspensions as politicians test which platform can still offer ballot access or negotiating leverage when the realignment dust settles.
