The All Progressives Congress may trigger fresh controversy over its 2027 National Assembly primaries after restoring six serving senators to the party’s ticket, despite the earlier declaration of other aspirants as winners. The reversal, which affected nine states, came as the Independent National Electoral Commission declared on Wednesday that it would reject any candidate submitted by political parties whose names did not correspond with the outcome of primaries monitored and uploaded by the commission, raising fresh uncertainty over the APC’s revised nominations. Documents showed that the APC National Working Committee, acting on the recommendations of its Primary Election Appeal Committee, replaced winners of the May senatorial primaries in Kogi, Abia, Benue, Taraba, Ondo, Niger, Kwara, Kaduna, and Ebonyi, restoring several incumbent lawmakers whose initial defeats had sparked outrage within the ruling party. The revised list restored the tickets of six serving senators, namely Sunday Karimi (Kogi West), Emmanuel Udende (Benue North-East), Titus Zam (Benue North-West), Shuaibu Isa Lau (Taraba North), Adeniyi Adegbonmire (Ondo Central), and Olajide Ipinsagba (Ondo North), while Prince Paul Ikonne replaced Edinburgh Erondu in Abia South. Ikonne is a former Chief Executive Officer of the National Agricultural Land Development Authority. One of the biggest casualties of the review was former Benue State Governor Gabriel Suswam, whose earlier victory in the Benue North-East primary was nullified in favour of the incumbent senator, Emmanuel Udende.
The development comes weeks after Senate President Godswill Akpabio assured senators who lost their return tickets during the APC primaries that the party leadership was engaging the National Working Committee and President Bola Tinubu to review petitions arising from the exercise. Having secured the APC ticket for Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District through affirmation, Akpabio had admitted that the party was surprised by the high number of serving lawmakers who failed to secure return tickets during the primaries and expressed optimism that many of the disputes would be resolved through the party’s appeal mechanism. The Senate President had said, “I felicitate, particularly those who have secured their mandates to represent their parties in the next election. I know that there will always be victories and disappointments, yet above every individual triumph stands a greater triumph, the triumph of democracy itself. And in this Senate, we have promised that we will have very few disappointments, and I do know that the Senate leader and the leadership of the Senate are working very hard towards that, so in advance, I will say congratulations to all of us across party lines.” More than 20 senators, mostly APC members, either lost their return tickets or were screened out during the party primaries. Those affected included lawmakers who recently defected from opposition parties to the APC, among them Benson Agadaga (Bayelsa East), Garba Maidoki (Kebbi South), and Banigo Ipalibo (Rivers West). Other prominent casualties of the primaries included Deputy Senate Leader Oyelola Ashiru, who lost the APC ticket for Kwara South; Ned Nwoko (Delta North); Neda Imasuen (Edo South); Jibrin Isah (Kogi East); Olubiyi Fadeyi (Osun Central); Danjuma Goje (Gombe Central); Gbenga Daniel (Ogun East); and Osita Izunaso, who stepped aside for Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma. The APC’s latest review, however, benefited only a handful of those who had sought redress, leaving the political future of many other serving lawmakers uncertain as the party concludes its nomination process.
Party sources stated that the restoration of some lawmakers followed intense lobbying, interventions by governors, traditional rulers, and the Presidency as the APC sought to contain the fallout from its primaries and avoid a prolonged internal crisis ahead of the 2027 elections. A senior APC official at the national secretariat, speaking on condition of anonymity, revealed that the majority of the serving APC lawmakers have yet to make the candidate list, though the uploading of names has not been finalized. The official noted that many states have yet to return the INEC nomination forms given to them, adding that the governor of each state directs who receives the form, and except for those senators who were cleared by the President, many serving lawmakers are unlikely to make the final list. The source disclosed that President Tinubu and the APC leadership personally intervened in some states where disagreements between influential stakeholders threatened to deepen divisions within the party. In Ondo State, the party resolved that Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa is not going to run for a second term and that the state assembly members are more important to him than the national lawmakers, while the party leadership also believed that Minister of Interior Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo does not need state lawmakers, prompting a settlement along that line. A similar power-sharing arrangement was brokered in Benue State between Governor Hyacinth Alia and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, where Governor Alia retained influence over State Assembly candidates while Akume’s camp secured greater control of National Assembly tickets. Traditional rulers also influenced some of the decisions, helping Senator Shuaibu Isa Lau regain the Taraba North ticket, while their dissatisfaction with Deputy Senate Leader Oyelola Ashiru in Kwara South due to performance complaints led to his exclusion from the list of returned candidates.
The APC’s revised list faces another hurdle following INEC’s insistence that only candidates who emerged from primaries monitored by the commission would be accepted during the online nomination process. Speaking on the issue, INEC National Commissioner Mohammed Kudu Haruna explained that the commission had already uploaded the results of all party primaries monitored by its officials and that its electronic nomination portal would automatically reject any attempt to substitute candidates outside those records. Haruna said all registered political parties had collected their access codes for the online submission of candidates, stating, “They’ve all collected their codes. Including NNPP. I’m told that NNPP, they came today and collected theirs but the upload, You know how these people work,they take their time.” He explained that the commission’s nomination process consists of two stages to eliminate arbitrary substitutions. According to Haruna, “So at our own end, there are two stages. There is the upload stage, our own staff who went to monitor working of course with ICT, will upload the results of the primaries they went and monitor. The time for submission, that’s when the parties now begin to submit, when they would have collected the forms, I think it’s EC89, where they put the particulars of their candidates.” Haruna stressed that political parties would be unable to upload names different from those already contained in INEC’s database because the electronic portal had been programmed to reject any discrepancy, stating, “Now, we call it submission; when they come to submit, if it is different from what we uploaded, because in uploading we work hand in glove with them, if it is different it won’t even go.” He recalled the 2023 legal battle involving the Senate President and a placeholder that ended in the Supreme Court, adding, “So to safeguard ourselves against those, once we upload, what we have uploaded, working hand in hand with parties, if in making their submission, they now put a different name, it will automatically be blocked.” He noted that the final submission online would only be accepted if it tallies with what INEC has at its end, which was uploaded in agreement with the parties.
The commission’s position has renewed attention on the provisions of the amended Electoral Act 2026, which introduced stricter nomination procedures and significantly curtailed the practice of post-primary substitutions. The amendment to Section 83 also bars politicians from defecting to another political party after parties have submitted their membership registers to INEC for the same election cycle, closing a route previously exploited by unsuccessful aspirants. Ironically, many lawmakers who supported the anti-defection amendment became victims of the same provision after losing their return tickets during the APC primaries. Across the country, the APC’s review produced varying outcomes. In Benue State, Senators Emmanuel Udende and Titus Zam successfully regained their senatorial tickets following the intervention of the party’s appeal committee, while former Governor Gabriel Suswam lost the Benue North-East ticket he had earlier secured at the primary. The review also favoured several members of the House of Representatives from the state, including Dickson Tarkighir, Sesoo Ikpagher, Terser Ugbor, Sekav Iyortyom, Austin Achado, Regina Akume, Blessing Onuh, Ojotu Ojema, and Solomon Wombo, while Peter Egbodo emerged as the APC candidate for Oju/Obi Federal Constituency. In Ondo State, Senators Adeniyi Adegbonmire and Olajide Ipinsagba recovered their tickets following an intervention that resolved the face-off between Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa and Youth Development Minister Ayodele Olawande. In Abia State, the APC retained its governorship candidate, Dr Eric Opah, while Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, Emeka Atuma, and Prince Paul Ikonne emerged as the party’s senatorial candidates after the review. The issuance of INEC nomination forms settled the APC’s senatorial contests in Kaduna, with former Senator Shehu Sani emerging as the candidate for Kaduna Central, incumbent Senator Sunday Marshall Katung securing Kaduna South, and former Governor Mukhtar Ramalan Yero clinching Kaduna North.
In Ekiti, all three serving senators, including Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele, Cyril Fasuyi, and Yemi Adaramodu, retained their tickets alongside House of Representatives members Sola Fatoba, Akin Rotimi, and Femi Bamisile, with the APC confirming that every winning aspirant received nomination forms without alteration. The same trend played out in Oyo State, where the APC confirmed that all three senatorial candidates and 14 House of Representatives candidates received their nomination forms after presentation by National Chairman Nentawe Yilwatda. In Edo, former Governor Adams Oshiomhole retained the Edo North ticket, Joe Ikpea secured Edo Central, while Omoregie Ogbeide-Ihama emerged as the candidate for Edo South. In Imo, Senator Patrick Ndubueze secured another APC ticket for Okigwe, while Senator Osita Izunaso stepped aside for Governor Hope Uzodimma’s governorship ambition, and Senator Ezenwa Onyewuchi opted to pursue the governorship rather than another Senate term. Several Imo House members, including Tochi Okere, Eugene Dibiagwu, Canice Moore Nwachukwu Omeogo, and Akarachi Amadi, also returned. In Kebbi, Senators Adamu Aliero and Yahaya Abdullahi secured APC tickets for another term, while Senator Garba Maidoki failed to return after his political disagreement with Governor Nasir Idris. In Sokoto State, Senator Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko emerged as the APC candidate, while former Governor Aminu Tambuwal withdrew from the race in favour of former ambassador Faruk Malami Yabo under the ADC.
Political realignments were more pronounced in Bauchi State, where Senator Shehu Buba dumped the APC for the Peoples Redemption Party after emerging as its governorship candidate, while Senator Abdul Ningi joined the African Democratic Congress and secured its senatorial ticket, and Senator Sama’ila Dahuwa left the APC for the PRP ticket. In Borno State, APC candidates for the three senatorial districts remained Kaka Shehu Lawan, Mohammed Ndume, and Tahir Monguno. In Gombe State, Senator Hassan Dankwambo secured another PDP ticket for Gombe North, while former Governor Danjuma Goje failed to secure the APC ticket for Gombe Central. In Enugu State, all three APC senatorial candidates, Kevin Chukwu, Ikeje Asogwa, and Osita Ngwu, retained their nominations, though some House of Representatives candidates were replaced following the review process. In Kwara State, the APC carried out a major overhaul of its National Assembly tickets, with all three serving senators losing out, including Senator Saliu Mustapha who was displaced by Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq for Kwara Central, while Prince Olalekan Sunday Adewoye replaced Deputy Senate Leader Oyelola Ashiru in Kwara South, and Dr Muhammed Mahmud replaced Senator Sadiq Umar in Kwara North. In Ogun State, the APC retained only four of its nine serving House of Representatives members, while Governor Dapo Abiodun replaced former Governor Gbenga Daniel as the APC candidate for Ogun East, Shuaib Salisu retained Ogun Central, and Jimoh Ojugbele emerged for Ogun West following Senator Solomon Adeola’s emergence as the APC governorship candidate. With INEC insisting that only candidates whose names correspond with the results of monitored primaries will be accepted, attention shifts to whether the APC's revised list survives the verification process or triggers another round of litigation.
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