- The All Progressives Congress National Working Committee has reversed the defeats of six serving senators across nine states, restoring them to the party tickets ahead of the 2027 general elections.
- The Independent Electoral Commission has issued a strict warning stating that its electronic portal will automatically block and reject any candidate whose name does not tally with the results uploaded by officials who monitored the primaries.
- High-stakes political balancing acts brokered by President Bola Tinubu and party leadership saw massive ticket reshuffling in states like Ondo, Benue, Kwara, and Ogun, displacing several prominent incumbent lawmakers.
The All Progressives Congress has been thrown into fresh uncertainty following a dramatic decision by the party’s National Working Committee to heavily alter the outcomes of the May senatorial primaries.
Eko Hot Blog reports that moving to mitigate intense internal friction, the party leadership acted on recommendations from its Primary Election Appeal Committee to restore several incumbent lawmakers who had previously lost their return tickets.
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This sweeping reversal spans nine states, including Kogi, Abia, Benue, Taraba, Ondo, Niger, Kwara, Kaduna, and Ebonyi. Among the most notable beneficiaries are Senators Sunday Karimi of Kogi West, Emmanuel Udende of Benue North-East, Titus Zam of Benue North-West, Shuaibu Isa Lau of Taraba North, Adeniyi Adegbonmire of Ondo Central, and Olajide Ipinsagba of Ondo North.
However, this major internal realignment is on a direct collision course with the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The electoral umpire has firmly declared that it will not accept any submitted candidate names that deviate from the authentic primary results monitored and uploaded by its field officials.
INEC National Commissioner Mohammed Kudu Haruna clarified that the commission’s electronic nomination portal features strict digital safeguards designed to eliminate arbitrary candidate substitutions.
He explained that before political parties even begin uploading the particulars of their standard-bearers via Form EC9, INEC’s own monitoring teams, working with the ICT department, would have already uploaded the verified outcomes of the monitored primaries.
If a party attempts to input a name that does not perfectly match the pre-existing data in the INEC system, the electronic portal is programmed to automatically block the submission.
This system was specifically introduced under the amended Electoral Act 2026 to prevent the protracted post-primary litigations that heavily disrupted past election cycles, such as the famous 2023 legal battle involving the Senate President that went all the way to the Supreme Court.
The latest party reviews have left the political futures of many other prominent politicians hanging in the balance. Inside sources reveal that the restorations were the product of intense lobbying, interventions by influential traditional rulers, state governors, and the Presidency.
For instance, a delicate power-sharing arrangement was brokered in Ondo State between Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa and the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, to balance local and federal influence.
A similar compromise was executed in Benue State to settle the long-standing rivalry between Governor Hyacinth Alia and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume.
In Taraba State, traditional rulers successfully intervened to help Senator Shuaibu Isa Lau regain his ticket. Conversely, in Kwara South, royal fathers expressed dissatisfaction with Deputy Senate Leader Oyelola Ashiru, leading to his ticket being handed over to Prince Olalekan Sunday Adewoye.
Meanwhile, high-ranking governors like Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State and AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara State have successfully clinched senatorial tickets for themselves, displacing existing lawmakers.
As the APC concludes its turbulent nomination process, all eyes are now on the INEC portal to see if these high-stakes political maneuvers will survive the automated validation checks or trigger a catastrophic wave of pre-election lawsuits.
