Fresh Trouble Looms In APC As Powerful Group Issues Strong Warning

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The North-Central All Progressives Congress, APC, Forum has given the party’s National Chairman, Prof Nentawe Yilwatda, a two-week ultimatum to step down over allegations surrounding the monetization of the recently concluded primary elections.

The Forum specifically accused the Yilwatda-led National Working Committee, NWC, of being responsible for the controversy and disputes that trailed the State Assembly, National Assembly, governorship, and presidential primaries conducted by the ruling party.

According to the group, results were altered in favour of aspirants who aligned with party officials, while several contestants believed to be on course for victory were allegedly screened out of the process. The allegations were contained in a statement released on Friday by the Forum’s National Chairman, Alhaji Saleh Zazzaga.

During the primaries, the North-Central APC Forum had earlier raised concerns over what it described as the poor conduct of the exercise, alleging that the process had been commercialised by party officials. The Forum also claimed that more than half of APC members were dissatisfied with the way the primaries were handled.

Presenting its position after the conclusion of the exercise, the North-Central APC Forum said the national chairman and members of the executive committee should be held accountable for allegedly violating party regulations.

The Forum warned that it would institute legal action against the national chairman if he fails to resign before June 12, the date set aside for the country’s 2026 Democracy Day celebration.

“We are issuing a two-week ultimatum to the national chairman to resign because of incompetence, violation of the party’s constitution, monetization of the just concluded party primaries and changing the results when it favoured those perceived as not in his camp.

“We have it on good authority that the national chairman and his team used their position to change the results and influence the outcome of primary elections across the country,” the statement said.

To support its allegation that several primary election outcomes were manipulated, the APC group pointed to what it described as discrepancies between official party records and the number of votes announced during the presidential primary election.

Chairman of the APC Presidential Primary Election Committee, former Senate President Pius Anyim, had announced that Tinubu secured 10,999,162 votes to defeat his challenger, Mr Stanley Osifo, who polled 16,503 votes.

The declared results have since generated controversy amid claims that the figures used during the exercise were inflated.

The APC Forum argued in its statement that the inconsistency between the figures announced and the party’s official records suggested that the primary election process had been manipulated by officials.

“We are concerned that the NWC under the national chairman did not tally the official data of the party with the presidential primary election. The party has eight million registered voters but when they released the result of Mr President in the presidential primary they wrote more than 10 million votes.

“The guidelines stated that only those that are registered are going to vote. So this means that, all over the country, what they did was selection of candidates, not election,” the statement said.

The Forum further lamented that the controversy surrounding the primaries had weakened the party, noting that several influential members had resigned and moved to other political platforms over what they described as injustice.

Former Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege, was identified as one of the latest party chieftains to leave the APC after protesting his defeat in the Delta Central senatorial primary. He has since joined the Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, where he was reportedly granted a waiver to contest the senatorial election.

The North-Central APC Forum also recalled that the national chairman’s former Chief of Staff, Mustapha Bala Dawaki, resigned from the party after losing the return ticket for the Dawakin Kudu/Warawa Constituency of Kano State. Dawaki has also reportedly defected to the NDC.

“It is because of these infractions that we are asking the national chairman to resign before two weeks, or we will sue him to court. If after that two weeks he refuses to resign we will start a court process and we will present evidence of monetization of the party primaries and reducing the value of the party which is why key members are complaining of injustice and leaving the APC for other parties.

“It is clear that the national chairman does not have the experience to settle the grievances that are arising from the primary elections. They sent people that lack the necessary political experience to the states to conduct the primaries, which is why we are witnessing all these problems,” the statement added.

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