2027: Why We Altered Final National Assembly Candidates List – APC

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said the fate of some aspirants initially declared winners in its recent primaries changed after the party reviewed over 700 petitions submitted by aggrieved members.

The party said the petitions were received after its primary elections across the country and were reviewed by its appeal committee before final decisions were taken by the National Working Committee.

According to ThisDay, APC National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, disclosed this in a telephone interview, saying the party carefully considered all complaints before arriving at its final position.

“For those aggrieved, we took our time to undertake a very thorough review of all the petitions that came after the primaries. There were over 700 petitions that were received and were properly vetted,” Morka said.

“Some were successful and some were not. Those successful led to some corrections in some constituencies. Those that were not successful meant that those earlier declared were retained.

“In a few cases, there were upsets based on the outcome of the petitions and decisions were made on them.”

Morka said the petition window had closed and that the party’s current list of candidates reflected both those who emerged unchallenged from the primaries and those whose candidacy was confirmed after the appeal process.

“We have gone past that. So the people today who are filling the forms are those who emerged originally without challenge and those who emerged out of the appeal process. This is the final position of the review,” he said.

He explained that the party’s immediate priority was to ensure that its candidates completed and returned their INEC Form EC9 for upload to the commission’s nomination portal.

“The priority of the party now is to have all our candidates fill and complete their INEC nomination form and upload same on INEC platform,” Morka added.

The APC spokesperson said successful candidates had already been given the relevant forms for documentation and were engaging with the party leadership to ensure a smooth submission process.

He added that releasing the full list publicly was not the party’s immediate concern.

“Having a public release of the list is not our priority now. Though we shall share the list publicly, right now, the priority is to get those who are our candidates to get their forms filled and meet the INEC deadline.

“This is more important to us than the public release of candidates’ list,” he said.

Morka maintained that the candidates already knew themselves and that there was no uncertainty within the party over its final list.

“Those who are our candidates, by now, have received their forms. They already know themselves. There is no tension about that,” he added.