2027: 'Heaven will not fall if Atiku is not on ballot' - Keyamo

The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, says the heavens will not fall if the African Democratic Congress, ADC, presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, is not on the ballot for the 2027 general elections.

Keyamo said this in a statement posted on his verified X handle on Friday.

His remark comes barely 24 hours after the Federal High Court in Abuja nullified the David Mark-led leadership of the African Democratic Congress and voided Atiku’s nomination as the party’s candidate.

According to Keyamo, those attacking the judgment are only angry because it did not go their way.

“You cannot abuse judges and blackmail the judiciary when it doesn’t go your way. Heavens will not fall if a certain Atiku Abubakar is not on the ballot in 2027,” Keyamo wrote.

Recall that Justice Peter Lifu delivered the judgment on Thursday, where he ruled that the Mark-led caretaker committee was illegal after Nafiu Bala, a former deputy national chairman of the ADC, challenged it in court.

The court’s ruling has generated reactions from every quarter of the country; however, the minister says law is based on facts and evidence, not on sentiment or noise on social media.

He told Atiku to remember that the All Progressives Congress, APC, has also lost in court before and accepted the outcome without attacking judges.

He pointed to Zamfara in 2019, when the Supreme Court cancelled the victories of all APC candidates in the state, from governorship to assembly contestants, and handed them to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.