The African Democratic Congress (ADC) Presidential Campaign Council has told the All Progressives Congress (APC) that no amount of insult can hide what it called the growing rejection of the ruling party by Nigerians. The response came on Saturday, hours after the APC accused the ADC and its candidate, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, of plotting to discredit President Bola Tinubu’s campaign flag-off in Kaduna. With the presidential election fixed for January 16, 2027, the exchange marks one of the sharpest clashes yet between the two campaigns.
The dispute began with a statement by Dele Alake, spokesperson of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, issued on the morning of the rally. Alake said the party had uncovered “a well-orchestrated, devious plan by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and his party” to undermine the event. He accused the opposition of using artificial intelligence, deepfake videos and forged documents to turn public opinion against the President, Kaduna State Governor Uba Sani and other APC leaders.
Two items sat at the centre of the APC’s complaint. The first was a photograph of a security vehicle near an APC billboard in Kaduna metropolis, which Alake described as a routine patrol. The second was a letter, said to have been written by Governor Sani to Senator Abdulaziz Yari, Director-General of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, claiming that the state had released ₦2.3 trillion to host the rally.
The Kaduna State Government has since disowned the letter. In a statement on Saturday, the Commissioner for Information and Culture, Ahmed Maiyaki, said “Governor Uba Sani neither authored nor authorised the purported letter,” and that no such sum was budgeted, approved or released. He noted that the state’s entire 2026 budget stood at ₦985.92 billion, meaning the alleged campaign spending would be more than twice its annual budget. Maiyaki also pointed to the misspelling of the governor’s surname as “Uba Sai” in the document.
Phrank Shaibu, Director of Strategic Communication of the ADC Campaign Council, did not defend the authenticity of the letter. Instead, he challenged Alake to show what linked the ADC to it or to any doctored video. “Alake should produce the evidence: names, dates and forensic findings,” he said, describing the APC’s warning as an empty political stunt. The APC has not publicly presented such evidence.
Shaibu argued that the opposition needed no conspiracy to expose the ruling party, pointing to prices at the pump and in the market. Some of his figures are supported by official and industry data. Petrol has hovered around ₦1,400 per litre since September, after Dangote Petroleum Refinery raised its gantry price to ₦1,350 amid a surge in global crude prices. Diesel crossed ₦2,000 per litre at several Abuja filling stations in September, although Dangote’s gantry price for the product stood at ₦1,800 as of October 10.
On food, the National Bureau of Statistics put food inflation at 19.57 per cent in August 2026, down from 25.30 per cent a year earlier but still the largest driver of headline inflation. Shaibu’s poverty claim rests on World Bank data. The Bank’s April 2026 Nigeria Development Update estimated that 63 per cent of Nigerians, about 140 million people, lived below the national poverty line in 2025, up from 56 per cent in 2023. The Bank projected a gradual decline to about 59 per cent by 2028, while the Federal Government has previously described such figures as modelled estimates rather than a real-time headcount.
Shaibu also raised claims about the rally itself that remain unverified. He alleged that supporters were brought in from distant states and left sleeping on Kaduna’s streets, and that vehicles carrying APC supporters from Sokoto and Abuja were involved in an accident. He admitted the details of the accident were unconfirmed, and the APC has not responded to that claim. He further alleged that Tinubu was campaigning in only 12 states, a figure the APC has not addressed.
“You can hire buses, assemble a crowd and plaster the streets with billboards. You cannot hire consent,” Shaibu said. He insisted that the cost of living would decide the election, adding that Alake’s attack on Atiku “will not reduce the cost of a meal by one naira.”
The choice of Kaduna for the flag-off carries weight for both parties. Atiku won the state in the 2023 presidential election, while the APC’s Uba Sani narrowly held the governorship in the same cycle. Under the Electoral Act 2026, presidential campaigns opened on August 19 and will close 24 hours before the January 16 vote, leaving both camps less than three months to make their case in the North West and beyond.