The presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, and former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has said that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s panic and that of his team ahead of the 2027 presidential election will not erase what he described as the administration’s catastrophic performance.

In a statement on Saturday by his spokesperson, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said opposition parties did not need a conspiracy to highlight the record of Tinubu’s administration.

He said rising petrol and diesel prices, at about N1,400 and N2,000 per litre, respectively, and soaring food inflation were evidence of the Tinubu government’s abysmal performance, which was negatively affecting households.

This comes as the Minister of Solid Minerals, Dele Alake, alleged that Atiku and the ADC were planning to sabotage Tinubu’s presidential campaign flag-off.

Reacting, Atiku said, “Alake should produce the evidence: names, dates and forensic findings. Until then, his ‘fake news alert’ is an empty political stunt.

“No conspiracy is needed to expose the APC. Its own failures are visible in every market, filling station and household. Petrol is around N1,400 a litre; diesel has topped N2,000; food inflation remains close to 20 per cent. More than half of Nigerians were living in poverty last year, according to the World Bank estimate reported by Reuters."

“These are the brutal consequences of an incompetent, callous and ruinous economic course. They are not fake news,” he stated.