The All Progressives Congress (APC) has postponed its House of Representatives primary, earlier scheduled to begin today, to Saturday, May 16, 2026.
NewsWatch Nigeria reports that the party announced the shift in a statement issued late Thursday by its National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka.
Morka, however, said the earlier dates fixed for the Senate, State Houses of Assembly, governorship, and presidential primaries remained unchanged.
According to the revised timetable, the House of Representatives primary will now hold on Saturday, May 16, while the Senate primary will take place on Monday, May 18.
The State Houses of Assembly primary is fixed for Wednesday, May 20, while the governorship primary will be held on Thursday, May 21.
The presidential primary remains scheduled for Saturday, May 23, 2026. Morka did not give any reason for the postponement.
Screening Issues, Logistics Blamed
Party sources who spoke with Daily Trust, however, said the one-day shift followed delays in resolving complaints raised by some aspirants during the screening exercise.
One source said the delay affected logistics, especially the deployment of party officials to states to monitor the primaries.
The source added that aspirants with screening issues had been contacted, noting that most of the complaints had been addressed.
He assured that the screening results would be released before the commencement of the primaries on Saturday.
Another source at the party’s national secretariat said the APC was still putting finishing touches to the list of cleared aspirants.
Two party insiders also said APC national officers and governors had pushed for consensus in selecting candidates for the 360 House of Representatives seats, but failed to secure the buy-in of many aspirants.
“Honestly, we predicted that we would get here because many aspirants in some states stood their grounds that they wanted to go for primaries to try their luck,” one of the sources said.
He added that the adjustment was meant to give the party more time to persuade more aspirants to accept consensus arrangements.
Another source said the party was also trying to address logistics gaps in areas where direct primaries would be held.
“It is evident that while many states have agreed on consensus for most of their House of Representatives seats, there are places where we have to go for direct primaries.
“And you know that the second option will require a lot of logistics like security arrangements and ensuring that card-carrying members of the party come out to vote.
“So, there are a lot of things to be done, hence the little adjustment.
“It is actually not a big deal; but we don’t want to take chances. The opposition parties are waiting for us to make a mistake so that they can latch on it to de-market us,” he said.
The primaries for the 360 House of Representatives seats across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory had earlier been scheduled to commence today.
