…19 House Of Rep Candidates Also Affected
Former governor of Benue States, Gabriel Suswam and five others, including former member of the House of Representatives from Ondo State, Gbenga Elegbeleye, have been dropped from the final list of senatorial candidates submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, by the National Working Committee, NWC, of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
The News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, reports that also dropped from and replaced in the final list of lawmakers submitted to INEC are 19 House of Representatives candidates who emerged victorious in the party’s primary elections held in May 2026.
States affected by the document forwarded to INEC by the APC were Abia, Kogi, Taraba, Benue, Ebonyi, Ondo, Kaduna, Niger and Kwara.
The letter conveying the list, signed by the APC National Chairman, Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda and National Secretary, Ajib9la Basiru and sent to INEC and signed by APC National Chairman,Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, and its National Secretary, Ajibola Basiru, attributed the changes to the report of its Primary Election Appeal Committee.
The letter, titled ‘Forwarding of Approved List of Senatorial and House of Representatives Candidates,’ reads, “We write to formally forward the attached list of the party’s candidates for the affected senatorial and House of Representatives constituencies arising from the report of the Primary Election Appeal Committee.
“Following the determination of appeals from the recently concluded primary elections, the reports of the Appeal Committee were reviewed and subsequently considered and approved by the party’s NWC as its final position on the affected constituencies.
“In accordance with the amended Electoral Act 2022 and INEC’s regulations and guidelines, we hereby transmit the enclosed list of the approved candidates for seven senatorial districts and 19 House of Representatives constituencies for your records and necessary action.
“Please accept the assurances of our highest regards.”
Four state governors are among the candidates whose names were uploaded by the APC to the INEC portal and they include AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq – Kwara, Hope Uzodimma – Imo, Ahmadu Fintiri – Adamawa and Inuwa Yahaya – Gombe, who had all been cleared by the party to contest Senate seats.
Also cleared are former governor of Kaduna State, Mukhtar Yero, Senator Shehu Sani and Senator Sunday Katung to contest Senate seats in Kaduna State.
Former governor of Kogi States, Yahaya Bello also secured the party’s ticket for the Kogi Central senatorial district, and he is among the 109 senatorial candidates running on the APC platform.
The uploading of candidates’ particulars, a continuous process, followed the ratification of the results of the April shadow polls and a review of the list in line with the outcome of the Primary Appeal Reports and INEC’S guidelines.
NAN reports that for the House of Representatives, Speaker Abbas Tajudeen, his deputy, Benjamin Kalu, Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa and James Faleke are among candidates to fly APC’s flag.
Recall that political parties are expected to upload names and particulars of their presidential and National Assembly candidates on INEC’S nomination portal between 9 a.m from June 27, to 6p.m on July 10, when the portal would be closed.
The documents to be uploaded by the parties include Form EC9 – containing candidates’ personal particulars, and Forms EC9A, EC9B, EC9C, EC9D and EC9E – containing the names and lists of nominated candidates.
The commission had earlier conducted a two-day training for political party officials on the use of its Candidate Nomination Portal, ICNP, ahead of the exercise, after which parties were issued access codes.
The training was conducted by officials of the commission’s ICT Department in line with its established practice of ensuring that stakeholders were properly prepared for electoral processes.
The acting Director-General of the Electoral Institute, Prof. Ibrahim Sani, had earlier said that candidate nomination was a fundamental stage of the electoral process.
He said the success of any election began with the proper nomination of candidates, adding that political parties must fully understand and comply with the legal and procedural requirements guiding the process.
The APC National Publicity Secretary, Mr Felix Morka, revealed that the party received over 700 petitions from aggrieved members on the ongoing process.
He, however said that the party’s priority now, was for all its candidates to complete their INEC nomination forms and have them uploaded to the commission’s portal.
He said those who emerged as the party’s candidates, were being provided with the relevant forms for documentation.
He added, “They are to complete and return the forms to the party for upload to the INEC portal, so, making the list public is not our priority now.
“Although we will eventually release the list, our immediate priority is to ensure that our candidates complete their forms and meet INEC’S deadline.
“This is more important to us than the public release of the candidates’ list. Those who are our candidates have, by now, received their forms.They already know themselves, there is no tension about that.”
