The Vice-presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Rotimi Amaechi, on Saturday, October 3, 2026 drove his principal, Atiku Abubakar, to a petrol station, turning an ordinary stop at the pump to a campaign event centred on their proposal to subsidise locally refined petrol and reduce the cost of living.

The visit was made barely 24 hours after Amaechi challenged President Bola Tinubu’s administration during an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today, the previous day, declaring that he would abandon Atiku’s ticket and campaign for Tinubu if petrol fell to ₦600 per litre by Saturday.

“I will go tomorrow morning to a petrol station myself so that you can see. If fuel has come down to 600, I will campaign for President Tinubu,” Amaechi had said. 

He went further, pledging to withdraw as Atiku’s running mate if the condition was met.

On Saturday, Amaechi made good on the first part of the challenge by heading to a filling station—with Atiku sitting beside him in the front passenger seat of a black SUV.

Videos circulated on social media showed Amaechi behind the wheel as the vehicle pulled beneath the filling-station canopy. 

A crowd soon gathered around the ADC candidates, with supporters raising their phones and cheering.

The pump price had not fallen to the ₦600 benchmark Amaechi had set the previous day.

But the stop quickly moved from checking the pump price to promoting the opposition ticket’s alternative petroleum policy.

Addressing the gathering, Amaechi said an Atiku administration would seek to lower petrol prices through what the ADC describes as a ‘production subsidy’.

“If you elect President Atiku, he will bring down the price of fuel by introducing production subsidy,” Amaechi told the crowd.

He argued that government intervention would be directed at reducing the cost of producing petrol domestically rather than subsidising imported fuel.

The proposal has become a central economic argument of the Atiku-Amaechi campaign. 

Amaechi said on Friday, October 2 , 2026 that an Atiku government would seek an amendment to the Petroleum Industry Act if the existing law prevented implementation of the proposed production subsidy.

Atiku has proposed a capped and budgeted subsidy tied to verified locally refined petroleum products. 

The APC Presidential Campaign Council has challenged the proposal, asking the ADC candidate to explain its funding, legal basis, spending ceiling and safeguards against abuse.

At the filling station, however, the technical arguments gave way to a simpler campaign message.

Atiku stepped from the vehicle and responded to supporters calling for the restoration of subsidy, declaring in Hausa that he would bring it back if elected.

The pledge fits into a broader argument being advanced by Amaechi that lowering energy costs would have consequences beyond the filling station.

During his Channels interview, he said an Atiku administration would seek to reduce fuel, transportation and food costs within its first year, linking high transportation and food prices to the cost of energy.

The petrol-station appearance therefore followed directly from Amaechi’s challenge the previous evening: he had promised to go to the pump himself and test whether petrol had reached ₦600.

On Saturday, he went.

He took Atiku with him—and turned the visit into a campaign pitch over what the ADC ticket says it would do differently about the price of fuel. (@GWG)