…as Fintiri-led structure pushes Tinubu’s 2027 bid
From Joseph Adahnu, Yola
The Adamawa State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has handed logistics support to its 21 local government chairmen, saying the vehicles will help them cover the state’s 226 wards and drive grassroots mobilisation for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s 2027 re-election.
Party officials said the support was provided by Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, who now coordinates the APC campaign in the state after leaving the Peoples Democratic Party in February 2026. Fintiri also serves as patron of the Adamawa Renewed Hope 226 Movement (ARH226M), the structure set up to organise the party from ward to state level.
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APC State Chairman, Hamza Madagali, said the gesture was meant to ease movement across a large and often difficult terrain and to put organisers closer to voters.
“The issue of election is on ground, face to face. No social media issue, no tricks, no video clips face to face with the electorate,” Madagali said.
He argued that the APC already has a stronger physical presence than its rivals. “Please, let’s tell the truth. Which opposition do you see on ground than this party? Since the starting of the campaigns, which opposition have you seen on ground?” The State Secretary Mustapha Ribadu, was more cautious about the outcome but pointed to the same ground game.
“Nothing is certain in this world apart from death,” he said. He added that, the party’s activities across Adamawa were visible in a way the opposition’s were not.
“We are in Adamawa. This is where we are. We have been seeing activities of our party. What is their activity? What are they doing? What are they saying?” Ribadu dismissed what he called “social media noise.”
“There is no polling unit on Facebook, Twitter or TikTok. Polling units are where our cars are going to.”
The donation follows a pattern seen in other APC-controlled states, where governors have given buses or cars to local chairmen specifically for mobilisation. In Adamawa it also has a second outlook: the same council chairmen who once operated under a PDP governor are now being equipped as the local engine of an APC presidential campaign.
Fintiri defected with a large number of the old PDP structure cabinet members, appointed officials and, according to party account, the ward to LGA machinery.
At the April 2026 state congress he announced ARH226M, naming himself patron and folding local government chairmen, councillors and support groups into one mobilisation platform. He has publicly pledged heavy vote for Tinubu in the state.
Madagali, a former PDP state chairman, now leads the APC chapter. Ribadu, previously in the old APC organisation, is state secretary. That fusion of former rivals is the political background to Friday’s logistics handover: the party is trying to turn a realignment on paper into presence in every ward.
Party leaders are drawing a sharp line between online commentary and votes. Their case is simple, elections in Adamawa will be won by organisers who can reach polling units, not by clips and posts. The vehicles are being presented as the practical tool for that work moving chairmen, agents and materials across wards that social media does not cover.
Ribadu challenged the opposition to show comparable structures, programmes and on the ground activity. Madagali said the APC’s presence was already stronger. Neither claimed the election was already won. What happens next will test whether the new logistics and the 226-ward structure will produce sustained contact with voters, or whether they remain a campaign photo.
Adamawa has a history of surprising outcomes and of local voters ignoring big names. The APC is betting that cars, chairmen and face to face work will decide 2027 more than online noise.
