The national collation centre in Abuja transformed into a theatre of shifting political fortunes on Tuesday night as former Vice President Atiku Abubakar established a massive, early advantage in the presidential primary of the African Democratic Congress. By the time the proceedings were abruptly halted near midnight, Atiku had secured more than 1.4 million votes across twenty-four states and the Federal Capital Territory, effectively turning what had been anticipated as a highly competitive, three-way contest into a lopsided race. The sheer scale of the momentum building behind the former vice president left his main rivals, former Rivers State governor Rotimi Amaechi and prominent businessman Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, facing an steep mathematical mountain as the first major wave of official declarations concluded.
The atmosphere within the national collation centre reflected the dramatic nature of the unfolding numbers. Vanguard observed that as state returning officers took turns at the podium to deliver their tallies, the early narrative of a balanced field quickly dissolved. In its place emerged a pattern of heavy regional dominance, particularly across key northern voting blocs, which formed the bedrock of Atiku’s soaring totals. The widening margins did more than just establish a clear frontrunner; they triggered quiet but intense discussions among assembled delegates, observers, and party officials regarding the unprecedented turnout figures and the long-term structural implications for the party’s internal balance of power.
As the night wore on deep into the early hours of Wednesday, the hall became a hub of localized political analysis. Delegates and party operatives huddled in small groups, frantically calculating remaining margins on notebooks and mobile devices. With each subsequent declaration confirming Atiku’s grip on the dynamic, a palpable sense of inevitability settled over the venue. For many in attendance, the remaining unannounced states were no longer viewed as a mechanism to change the ultimate outcome of the primary, but rather as a baseline to determine the final, historic margin of victory for the former vice president.
This intense momentum was temporarily frozen just before midnight when the Chairman of the Presidential Primary Election Committee, Ikechi Emenike, stepped forward to announce an official adjournment. Emenike explained that the suspension of the exercise was necessary to accommodate Muslim party members observing the Eid al-Kabir celebrations and to address logistical bottlenecks. Specifically, several returning officers tasked with transporting results from distant states had encountered flight disruptions preventing their timely arrival in the federal capital. The committee head assured stakeholders that the process would resume promptly at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, leaving twelve states left to determine the absolute finality of the primary.
Prior to this operational pause, the official ledger had already captured a vast geopolitical cross-section of the federation. The results from twenty-four states and the FCT had been formally entered into the national record, encompassing Borno, Kebbi, Anambra, Abia, Ekiti, Ondo, Gombe, Oyo, Imo, Yobe, Nasarawa, Enugu, Benue, Osun, Kogi, Kano, Akwa Ibom, Sokoto, Taraba, Zamfara, Ebonyi, Niger, Plateau, and Adamawa. It was within these varied territories that Atiku’s field operations demonstrated their efficiency, locking down massive majorities in states central to the party’s delegate arithmetic.
The single largest haul of the night for the former vice president came from his home state of Adamawa, where his organizational machinery delivered a staggering 177,141 votes. In stark contrast, Amaechi secured just 1,896 votes in the state, while Hayatu-Deen managed 18,949. This pattern of overwhelming dominance repeated itself in Kano, an indispensable urban battleground, where Atiku polled a massive 155,595 votes. Despite aggressive campaigning in the commercial hub, Amaechi and Hayatu-Deen were left far behind, securing 9,994 and 15,914 votes, respectively. Gombe State provided perhaps the most statistically lopsided result of the entire evening, returning 136,933 votes for Atiku, while his challengers were held to just 1,140 for Amaechi and a mere 455 for Hayatu-Deen.
Even in regions where his opponents attempted to mount a serious defense, Atiku’s numbers consistently outpaced the opposition. In Borno, he claimed 86,084 votes compared to Hayatu-Deen’s 3,011 and Amaechi’s 2,493. Sokoto yielded a similarly decisive margin, with Atiku pulling in 63,823 votes while both challengers struggled to break the 400-vote threshold individually. This pattern extended across the north-central and northwestern states, with Zamfara delivering 60,500 votes and Kebbi contributing 65,523 to Atiku’s rapidly expanding running total.
Rotimi Amaechi’s campaign demonstrated its strongest resistance in a handful of North-Central and Middle Belt states, though these pockets of strength ultimately did little to slow the frontrunner’s overarching trajectory. In Benue State, Amaechi mounted a commendable showing with 30,881 votes, but was still outpaced by Atiku’s 55,177 votes, with Hayatu-Deen recording his own strongest performance of the night there at 22,141 votes. Taraba State saw Amaechi secure 25,150 votes against Atiku’s 48,523, while Kogi followed a similar blueprint, handing Amaechi 23,573 votes to Atiku’s leading 48,351. Akwa Ibom stood out as a rare bright spot for the former Rivers governor, where he actually bested the frontrunner by scoring 20,343 votes to Atiku’s 17,623.
For Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, the night proved to be an uphill battle against established political networks. Beyond his solid five-figure showing in Benue and a respectable 18,949 votes in Adamawa, the businessman struggled to find traction in the vast majority of the declared territories. His campaign hit severe roadblocks in places like Ekiti and Ondo, where he recorded just 149 and 175 votes, respectively, illustrating the deep structural challenges his team faced in countering the widespread institutional alignment behind the former vice president.
Interestingly, the Southern states presented a much more fragmented and localized voting pattern, though Atiku still managed to carry the majority of them. In the Southeast, Anambra delivered a solid 58,566 votes for Atiku, while Amaechi gathered 17,085 and Hayatu-Deen took 7,861. Imo State mirrored this trend with 52,222 votes favoring Atiku. However, Ebonyi State bucked the national trend entirely, handing Amaechi a localized victory with 6,400 votes, followed by Hayatu-Deen at 4,840, and leaving Atiku with his lowest output of the night at just 1,210 votes. In the Southwest, Atiku maintained a steady hand, winning Oyo with 23,011 votes and Osun with 12,321 votes, while Amaechi’s support dipped to double digits in the latter.
The preliminary totals paint a vivid picture of the race’s current trajectory. As the collation technicians calibrated their final spreadsheets before the midnight adjournment, the cumulative running total stood at 1,432,275 votes for Atiku Abubakar. Rotimi Amaechi occupied the second position with a total of 246,455 votes, while Mohammed Hayatu-Deen held third place with 135,375 votes. With twelve states still left to report when the collation centre doors reopen, the core question driving the remainder of the exercise has fundamentally shifted. The political community is no longer asking who will lead the ticket, but rather how large the final mandate will be as the African Democratic Congress prepares for the general election cycle.
