Fresh Controversy Looms In APC Over High-stakes Deals Involving Official Senate List

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has raised fresh uncertainty about its official Senate list following the decision to return some lawmakers, despite the earlier declaration of other aspirants as winners.

Naija News reports that the reversal, which affected nine states, Kogi, Abia, Benue, Taraba, Ondo, Niger, Kwara, Kaduna and Ebonyi, restored several incumbent lawmakers whose initial defeats had sparked outrage within the ruling party.

The latest development came as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared on Wednesday that it would reject any candidate submitted by political parties whose names did not correspond to the outcomes of primaries that the commission had monitored and uploaded.

The revised list restored the tickets of six serving senators, namely Senators 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), while Prince Paul Ikonne replaced Edinburgh Erondu in Abia South.

However, one of the biggest casualties of the review was former Governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam, whose earlier victory in the Benue North-East primary was nullified in favour of the incumbent senator, Emmanuel Udende.

Recall that the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, has assured more senators who lost their return tickets during the APC primaries that the party leadership was engaging the National Working Committee and President Bola Tinubu to review petitions arising from the exercise.

Having secured the APC ticket for Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District through affirmation, Akpabio had admitted that the party was surprised by the high number of serving lawmakers who failed to secure return tickets during the primaries and expressed optimism that many of the disputes would be resolved through the party’s appeal mechanism.

He said, “I felicitate, particularly those who have secured their mandates to represent their parties in the next election. I know that there will always be victories and disappointments, yet above every individual triumph stands a greater triumph, the triumph of democracy itself.

“And in this Senate, we have promised that we will have very few disappointments, and I do know that the Senate leader and the leadership of the Senate are working very hard towards that, so in advance, I will say congratulations to all of us across party lines.”

Intense Lobbing

Sources who spoke with Punch disclosed that President Tinubu and the APC leadership personally intervened in some states where disagreements among influential stakeholders threatened to deepen divisions within the party.

A senior APC official at the national secretariat said the restoration of some lawmakers followed intense lobbying, interventions by governors, and traditional rulers to avoid a prolonged internal crisis ahead of the 2027 elections.

The source said many serving lawmakers were still uncertain of their fate because the final nomination process had not been concluded.

According to him, one of the most delicate disputes was in Ondo State, where Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa and the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, were locked in a struggle over the control of the party’s National and State Assembly tickets.

He said, “Majority of the serving APC lawmakers have yet to make the candidate list, though we have not finalised the uploading of the names. Many of the states have yet to return the INEC nomination forms given to them.

“The governor of each state is the one calling the shots. He is the one who will direct us on who to hand the INEC nomination form to. Except for those senators who were cleared by the President, many of the serving lawmakers are not likely to make the final list.

“The party resolved that Aiyedatiwa is not going to run for a second term and that the state assembly members are more important to him than the national lawmakers. On the other hand, the party leadership also believes that Tunji-Ojo doesn’t need state lawmakers. So, they called the two parties together and settled it along that line.” 

Another party official also disclosed that a similar power-sharing arrangement was brokered in Benue State to resolve the rivalry between Governor Hyacinth Alia and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume.

According to the party official, Tinubu and other national leaders approved a compromise under which Governor Alia retained influence over the State Assembly candidates while Akume’s camp secured greater control of the National Assembly tickets.

The source stated, “The same system that was applied in Ondo was also used in Benue. Governor Alia only has the 2027 election for his second term. He wouldn’t contest again after that. So, there was a need to balance power between him and the SGF. That was what happened. The President and the national leaders of the party were involved.”