The All Progressives Congress (APC) National Working Committee (NWC) has dropped former Benue Governor, Gabriel Suswam and five other senatorial candidates from the party’s final list of candidates forwarded to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that former Ondo State House of Representatives member, Gbenga Elegbeleye, was also dropped from the list, among others.
Also contained in the final lists of dropped and replaced candidates forwarded to INEC are 19 House of Representatives candidates who emerged victorious in the party’s primary elections held in May 2026.
According to the document forwarded to INEC, the states affected were Abia, Kogi, Taraba, Benue, Ebonyi, Ondo, Kaduna, Niger and Kwara.
In the letter sent to INEC and signed by APC National Chairman, Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, and its National Secretary, Ajibola Basiru, the party attributed the changes to the report of its Primary Election Appeal Committee.
The letter was titled: “Forwarding of approved list of senatorial and House of Representatives candidates”.
The letter read: “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.
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“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.”
Sen. Godswill Akpabio, President of the Senate, his deputy, Sen. Jibrin Barau, Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele, Senate Chief Whip Mohammed Monguno and Sen. Adams Oshiomhole received their Candidate Affidavit Forms (EC9).
Four state governors are among the candidates whose names were uploaded by the APC to the INEC portal,
The four governors are AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara, Hope Uzodimma of Imo, Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa and Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe who had all been cleared by the party to contest Senate seats.
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Also cleared are former Kaduna State Governor Mukhtar Yero, Sen. Shehu Sani and Sen. Sunday Katung to contest Senate seats in Kaduna State.
Former Kogi Governor Yahaya Bello secured the party’s ticket for the Kogi Central Senatorial District; 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, Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu, Mudashiru Obasa and James Faleke are among the candidates to fly the APC’s flag.
Political parties are expected to upload the names and particulars of their presidential and National Assembly candidates on INEC’s nomination portal between 9 a.m on June 27 and 6p.m on July 10, when the portal will close.
The documents to be uploaded 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.
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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.
Prof. Ibrahim Sani, the acting Director-General of the Electoral Institute, had earlier said that candidate nomination was a fundamental stage of the electoral process.
