A United States based lobbying firm retained by former Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar has threatened to present a social media post by Nigeria’s Aviation Minister, Festus Keyamo, SAN, to the Trump administration and members of the US Congress.
The firm alleges that the minister’s celebration of a recent court ruling constitutes an open display of election interference.
The firm, Von Batten Montague York, issued the warning on its official X account on Thursday following a Federal High Court judgment that nullified the David Mark led leadership of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and, by extension, invalidated Atiku’s nomination as the party’s presidential candidate for the 2027 elections.
Minister Keyamo published a post on his X handle on Thursday, shortly after Justice Peter Lifu delivered the ruling. Keyamo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria who serves as Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, wrote: “Justice may be slow, but it is always SURE!”
He elaborated further, accusing the Atiku aligned faction of illegally hijacking the ADC without following due process. He wrote: “You cannot invade a political Party owned and built by Nigerians, hijack it with the connivance of a so called National Chairman without a PRIOR meeting and approval of a mini National Convention or the National Executive Committee and hope to bluff your way out of such a brazen act by blaming and blackmailing the ruling Party for a misfortune deliberately stocked by you.”
Keyamo also directly mocked Atiku, stating: “It is not only when a certain ATIKU ABUBAKAR contest the Presidency that democracy is not in danger,” and described the Mark led faction as an illegal band of marauders.
The court ruling followed a suit filed by Nafiu Bala Gombe, a former ADC National Deputy Chairman (North East), who challenged the process by which David Mark’s caretaker committee assumed control of the party following the resignation of former Chairman Ralph Nwosu. Justice Lifu ruled that the emergence of Mark and former Osun Governor Rauf Aregbesola violated the ADC constitution and the Electoral Act, effectively voiding all decisions made by that leadership, including the primary that produced Atiku as the ADC flagbearer.
Von Batten Montague York, which publicly available filings under the US Foreign Agents Registration Act show was retained by Atiku on a 12 month, $1.2 million contract, seized on Keyamo’s post as evidence of government impropriety.
In its statement, the firm wrote: “We are going to be presenting the @X post of @fkeyamo, President Tinubu’s Minister of Aviation, whose government portfolio has nothing to do with elections or electoral integrity, openly celebrating what a senior congressional staffer described as an ‘open display of election interference by the Nigerian government,’ to members of the @realDonaldTrump administration and Congress.”
The firm further issued a direct warning to President Bola Tinubu: “In a few months, you are going to look at this court ruling and @fkeyamo’s post as the defining moment when the rope the United States has been giving you to figuratively hang yourself finally became the instrument of your own political downfall.”
Keyamo responded to the firm’s initial statement with laughing emojis on Thursday night.
The ADC has rejected the ruling and vowed to appeal. In a statement signed by National Publicity Secretary Bolaji Abdullahi, the party described the judgment as another desperate attempt to cripple the opposition and warned the APC against playing with fires it cannot control.
The Tinubu administration has previously dismissed the lobbying firm’s activities as politically motivated propaganda. Presidential spokesman Sunday Dare alleged in September that the firm was presenting political claims as intelligence reports and emphasised that Dr Karl Von Batten is a commercial lobbyist whose statements do not represent the US government.
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