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On the eve of what was meant to be a powerful show of political strength in Kaduna, the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council (APC-PCC) has gone public with a serious and startling accusation. The council says it has uncovered a carefully coordinated plot, orchestrated by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and his political allies in the African Democratic Congress (ADC), to sabotage and discredit the APC’s campaign flag-off rally on Saturday, October 24, 2026. This rally was designed to bring together President Bola Tinubu, Governor Uba Sani, party leaders, and thousands of supporters in a single public display of unity ahead of what will likely be a fiercely contested political season. But according to the APC-PCC, what should have been a moment of celebration has become the target of a highly organized disinformation campaign. In a statement filled with strong language and urgent warnings, the APC-PCC alleged that Atiku and the ADC have perfected a strategy centered on lies, fabrications, and psychological manipulation. The plan, they claim, is not just to embarrass the party but to distort public perception of the event, to manufacture anger and resentment where none exists, and to undermine the credibility of President Tinubu and Governor Uba Sani in the eyes of ordinary Nigerians. The tools in this alleged arsenal are deeply modern and disturbing: fake news operations, artificial intelligence-generated deepfakes, counterfeit documents, and carefully distorted images, all designed to travel quickly across mainstream media and social media alike.
The first alleged example of this campaign, according to the APC-PCC, involved a photograph that appeared at first glance to be completely harmless. The image showed a security vehicle on what appeared to be routine patrol, innocently stationed at a junction near one of the APC’s numerous campaign billboards in Kaduna metropolis. To any reasonable observer, it would have looked like normal police presence ahead of a major political gathering. But within hours, this simple photograph had been twisted into a sinister narrative. Atiku’s propaganda machinery, working alongside the ADC, reportedly claimed that the security agents had been deployed not for public safety but for the sole purpose of guarding APC billboards. It was a small, almost laughable charge, but it was only the beginning. The APC-PCC says this distorted story was then deliberately planted in a national newspaper with a well-known history of anti-government and anti-APC editorial positions. The timing, they say, was perfect. Not long after the newspaper published the fake, distorted story, Atiku Abubakar himself latched onto it in a coordinated move, sharing the narrative across his official social media platforms in an attempt to generate traffic, spark outrage, and force the story into the national conversation. The council described this as mindless propaganda and subterfuge, and its frustration is clear. In a political landscape where a single viral image can shape public opinion before the truth has time to put on its shoes, the APC-PCC believes this was a calculated first strike meant to poison the atmosphere before the rally even began.
The second alleged tactic was even more audacious. The APC-PCC revealed that Atiku and ADC agents of disinformation had released a fake letter online, purportedly written by Governor Uba Sani and addressed to the Director-General of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, Senator Abdulaziz Yari. The forged document claimed that the Kaduna State Government had released a staggering N2.3 trillion to host the APC rally. The sheer absurdity of this figure, the APC-PCC argues, exposes the desperation of those behind it. N2.3 trillion is not just a large amount of money; it is a sum so enormous that it defies logic and basic common sense. The council asked, with understandable incredulity, how much does any state in Nigeria generate in annual revenue, and which state could possibly spend N2.3 trillion on a single political rally? To put the lie into proper perspective, the APC-PCC helpfully provided the cold facts. Kaduna State’s total budget for 2024 was N458.271 billion. In 2025, it was N790.439 billion. And in 2026, the budget was set at N985.9 billion. Added together, these three annual budgets are still less than the N2.3 trillion that the fabricated letter claims the state spent on a single event. It is a lie that would almost be laughable if it were not meant to be so damaging. But in the eyes of the APC-PCC, this was no accident or casual rumor. It was a deliberately constructed falsehood designed to make the public believe that the government was recklessly squandering public funds while neglecting the needs of the people. It fits perfectly into the opposition’s narrative of corruption and waste, and it was deployed with enough polish to fool those who might not stop to check the numbers.
But the APC-PCC says these two episodes are merely a glimpse of a much broader and more disquieting plan. As the rally kicked off in Kaduna, the council alleged that Atiku and the ADC had perfected plans to begin circulating old, doctored, and AI-generated deepfake videos across social media. These videos, they claim, are intended to show purported resentment by the people, to manufacture the false impression that the rally was poorly attended, that the crowd was angry, or that the people of Kaduna rejected the APC. In a world where seeing is no longer automatically believing, this represents a dangerous escalation. Deepfake technology allows anyone with enough determination to place words in people’s mouths, to alter the atmosphere of real events, and to create entirely false realities that can spread across the internet in a matter of minutes. The APC-PCC lamented the fact that the forces behind these tactics are fully aware that they cannot win an election through honest competition. Atiku Abubakar and the ADC, the council stated, are incapable of winning any election on the strength of their ideas, their record, or their vision for the country. Therefore, they will pull any strings, no matter how despicable and atrocious, to stay afloat in their desperate bid to grab power at all costs. This is not the language of policy debate; it is the language of survival. The APC-PCC called on Nigerians to be vigilant, to question the sources of what they see, and to reject the machinations of those who would rather destroy democracy than lose an election.
At the heart of this conflict lies a profound concern about the state of political conduct in Nigeria. The APC-PCC framed its accusation not just as an attack on its party, but as a warning to every citizen about the lengths to which a desperate opposition will go when it feels the ground slipping beneath its feet. The statement described Atiku and the ADC as a “special-purpose vehicle,” a phrase that suggests the former Vice President is using the African Democratic Congress not as a genuine political movement but as a means to an end. According to the campaign council, this is not about governance, service, or the welfare of ordinary Nigerians. It is about power, plain and simple. The tactics described are not new inventions, but they have become more dangerous because of the technology now available. Fake news operations can be automated. Deepfake videos can be made to look indistinguishable from reality. Forged documents can circulate widely before anyone has a chance to verify them. In this environment, the APC-PCC argues, the public is not just a spectator but a target. Every ordinary Nigerian scrolling through social media is being subjected to an orchestrated attempt to manipulate their emotions, to plant seeds of distrust in democratic institutions, and to undermine the legitimacy of a government that was chosen by the people. The council’s language is urgent and passionate because it believes that what is at stake is not just one rally in Kaduna, but the integrity of the democratic process itself.
As the crowds gather in Kaduna today, the APC-PCC has a simple message for Nigerians: do not be fooled by manufactured outrage. Look at the source of every story. Check the numbers. Ask questions before sharing anything that inflames your emotions. The photo of a parked security vehicle is not evidence of conspiracy. The fabricated letter about N2.3 trillion is not a revelation of corruption; it is a desperate lie that falls apart when tested against public records. The old and altered videos that will inevitably appear online are not proof of popular rejection; they are the final gambits of a political machine that has run out of ideas. The APC-PCC remains confident that Nigerians, who have endured so much in their journey toward a stable and accountable democracy, are too smart to be taken in by this level of manipulation. They believe that the truth, like the rally itself, will stand in the bright light of day, while the lies will retreat into the shadows from which they came. In the end, no amount of deepfakes or forged documents can change a simple reality: the people will decide the future, not the propagandists. And even as the opposition plots and schemes, the APC-PCC calls on supporters and neutral observers alike to measure what is real and what is false, to trust what they see with their own eyes, and to reject the politics of deception once and for all.