Nigeria’s ruling All Progressives Congress has restored six serving senators to its list of candidates for the 2027 National Assembly elections following appeals over the party’s primaries, a move that could trigger fresh disputes after the Independent National Electoral Commission warned it would reject candidates whose names differ from the results of monitored primaries.
Documents obtained by Nigerian Mirror showed the APC National Working Committee, acting on recommendations of its Primary Election Appeal Committee, reviewed the outcome of senatorial primaries in several states and reinstated six incumbent lawmakers who had initially lost their return tickets.
The restored senators are Sunday Karimi (Kogi West), Emmanuel Udende (Benue North-East), Titus Zam (Benue North-West), Shuaibu Isa Lau (Taraba North), Adeniyi Adegbonmire (Ondo Central) and Olajide Ipinsagba (Ondo North). The party also replaced Edinburgh Erondu with former National Agricultural Land Development Authority chief executive Prince Paul Ikonne for the Abia South senatorial ticket.
Among those affected by the review was former Benue State Governor Gabriel Suswam, whose earlier victory in the Benue North-East primary was overturned in favor of Udende.
The reversal comes weeks after Senate President Godswill Akpabio assured senators who lost their return tickets that the party leadership was working with President Bola Tinubu and the APC National Working Committee to review petitions arising from the primaries.
More than 20 senators, mostly APC members, either lost their return tickets or failed to secure nominations during the party’s primaries. They included lawmakers who recently defected to the APC from opposition parties, as well as several prominent serving senators.
Party sources said the reinstatement of some lawmakers followed intense lobbying and interventions by President Tinubu, governors, traditional rulers and other influential stakeholders seeking to contain discontent within the ruling party ahead of the 2027 general elections.
A senior APC official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly, said the nomination process remained incomplete.
“Many serving lawmakers have yet to make the final candidate list because several states have not returned the nomination forms. Governors still have significant influence over who eventually receives the forms,” the official said.
According to the source, Tinubu and the party leadership personally intervened in states where disagreements among key political figures threatened party unity.
In Ondo State, party leaders reportedly brokered a compromise between Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa and Interior Minister Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo over the allocation of National and State Assembly tickets.
A similar arrangement was reached in Benue State to resolve disagreements between Governor Hyacinth Alia and Secretary to the Government of the Federation George Akume, with each camp retaining influence over different categories of candidates.
Another party official said traditional rulers also played a role in the appeal process. He claimed consultations with monarchs contributed to the restoration of Senator Shuaibu Isa Lau’s ticket in Taraba, while dissatisfaction expressed by traditional rulers in Kwara South influenced the party’s decision not to reinstate Deputy Senate Leader Oyelola Ashiru.
The APC’s revised nominations may, however, face another obstacle after INEC insisted it would only accept candidates whose names match the results of primaries monitored and uploaded by the commission.
INEC National Commissioner Mohammed Kudu Haruna said the commission had already uploaded authentic primary election results into its electronic nomination portal and that any attempt to substitute candidates outside those records would be automatically rejected.
“Our staff who monitored the primaries have uploaded the results. If political parties attempt to submit names different from what has already been uploaded, the system will reject them,” Haruna revealed.
He said the electronic verification process was introduced to prevent the disputes over candidate substitutions that followed previous elections and resulted in prolonged litigation.
The commission’s position has drawn renewed attention to provisions of the Electoral Act 2026, which tightened rules governing party nominations and significantly restricted post-primary substitutions. The amended law also prevents politicians from defecting to another party after membership registers have been submitted to INEC for the same election cycle.
Across several states, the APC’s appeal process produced mixed outcomes. While some serving senators regained their tickets, many others remained unsuccessful.
In Benue and Ondo, incumbent senators recovered their nominations after the review. In Abia, the party confirmed Prince Paul Ikonne as its candidate for Abia South, while in Kaduna, the issuance of INEC nomination forms effectively settled the party’s senatorial contests.
The review also confirmed candidates in states including Ekiti, Oyo, Edo, Imo, Kebbi, Sokoto and Borno, while significant changes occurred in Kwara and Ogun, where several serving lawmakers lost their tickets to governors, former political officeholders and other party figures.
Political realignments continued in other states as some lawmakers who failed to secure APC nominations moved to rival parties ahead of the 2027 elections.
Although the APC has concluded much of its internal appeal process, uncertainty remains over whether all of its revised nominations will survive INEC’s verification process.
The commission’s insistence that only candidates whose names correspond with results uploaded from monitored primaries will be accepted raises the possibility of fresh legal challenges as political parties finalize their candidates for the 2027 general elections.
