2027 Presidency: Aisha Yesufu Challenges Atiku Over Supporters’ Attacks on Peter Obi Camp

Human rights activist Aisha Yesufu has called on former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to rein in his supporters, accusing them of escalating attacks against supporters of former Anambra State governor, Peter Obi, ahead of Nigeria’s 2027 presidential election.

Yesufu made the appeal in a post on her verified X account on Tuesday, amid growing disagreements among supporters of opposition figures seeking to challenge the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and President Bola Tinubu at the next presidential election.

According to the activist, supporters of Atiku had been conducting what she described as a “rampage” on social media, with Peter Obi’s supporters and herself among those targeted. She consequently appealed directly to Atiku to intervene and call his supporters to order.

Yesufu said she expected political decency and sportsmanship, particularly because she and Atiku had previously operated within the same political platform. She argued that opposition supporters should not allow personal disagreements to overshadow the broader political objective ahead of 2027.

The activist further urged the rival camps to sheathe their swords and concentrate on the political contest against the APC and Tinubu. Her position reflects concerns that hostility between opposition supporters could undermine attempts to build a united challenge to the ruling party.

The dispute comes against the backdrop of significant political realignments within Nigeria’s opposition. Atiku has emerged as the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), while Peter Obi is also associated with the opposition coalition and remains a major figure among voters who supported him during the 2023 presidential election.

Yesufu has previously been closely associated with Obi’s political movement. She campaigned for Obi during the 2023 presidential election and has remained an influential voice among his supporters. She also announced earlier in 2026 that she would become a card-carrying member of the ADC, describing the move as her first formal membership of a political party.

Her latest intervention highlights the increasingly competitive relationship between supporters of Atiku and Obi as the 2027 contest approaches. Although both political figures are part of the broader opposition realignment, questions surrounding leadership, presidential ambition and the eventual distribution of political roles have generated strong reactions among their respective supporters.

The online confrontation also illustrates the difficulty of maintaining unity among opposition groups with different political loyalties and expectations. Social media has increasingly become an arena for political mobilisation, but it has also provided a platform for supporters of competing candidates to engage in personal attacks and heated exchanges.

Yesufu’s appeal was therefore framed less as an endorsement of hostility towards Atiku and more as a call for restraint among opposition supporters. She maintained that political competition should be conducted with decency and that supporters should focus on the larger national political contest rather than attacking one another.

As the 2027 election approaches, the ability of Nigeria’s opposition figures and their supporters to manage their differences could become a major factor in their political strategy. For now, Yesufu’s message to Atiku is clear: control the rhetoric of your supporters, avoid unnecessary internal warfare and allow the eventual contest to be decided by voters rather than social-media battles.