•APC national chairman, Nentawe Yilwatda
The All Progressives Congress (APC) says it is on course to meet the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) July 11 deadline for the submission of its presidential and National Assembly candidates for the 2027 general elections.
A senior member of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC), who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the upload of candidates’ details was at an advanced stage, with the details of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his running mate expected to be uploaded by the middle of the week, reports The Nation.
“We are progressing smoothly with the uploading of the details of our National Assembly candidates,” the source said.
“We hope that on or before next Wednesday, we shall upload the details of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his running mate. We are completely sure of meeting the July 11 deadline for uploading all our candidates on the INEC portal.”
Checks at the APC’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) department at the Muhammadu Buhari House headquarters in Abuja yesterday indicated that the party’s technical team has continued to interface with the INEC portal without disruption.
Sources in the department said the details of most principal officers of the 10th National Assembly and several serving lawmakers had already been uploaded.
They added that the details of four serving governors — AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara State, Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State, Hope Uzodimma of Imo State and Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State — had also been uploaded to the INEC portal.
The race to meet the deadline followed a review of the party’s primary elections. The APC recently submitted a revised list of candidates to INEC after the NWC removed six senatorial and 19 House of Representatives candidates who had earlier emerged from the party’s May primaries.
The changes affected constituencies in Abia, Kogi, Taraba, Benue, Ebonyi, Ondo, Kaduna, Niger and Kwara states and followed the recommendations of the party’s Primary Election Appeal Committee.
The revised list was forwarded to INEC in a letter jointly signed by APC National Chairman, Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, and National Secretary, Ajibola Basiru.
APC National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, said the party received more than 700 petitions from aggrieved members after the conclusion of its primaries.
“The party received over 700 petitions from aggrieved members following the conclusion of our shadow elections,” Morka said.
He declined to state when the final list of candidates would be released publicly, saying the party’s immediate focus was to ensure compliance with INEC’s nomination requirements.
“Our absolute immediate priority right now is ensuring that our designated candidates properly complete and return their Form EC9 nomination documents for upload ahead of the strict INEC deadline, rather than focusing on the public release of the list,” he said.
Despite the changes made by the appeal committee, the final list submitted to INEC retained many of the party’s leading figures, including four serving governors who secured the party’s tickets to contest Senate seats in the 2027 general elections.
