The All Progressives Congress on Thursday postponed its House of Representatives primary election by one day amid unresolved disagreements over consensus arrangements, screening issues and logistical challenges.
The primary, earlier scheduled for Friday, will now hold on Saturday, May 16, 2026. The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, announced the adjustment in a statement, noting that the dates for the Senate, State Houses of Assembly, governorship and presidential primaries remained unchanged.
According to the revised timetable, the Senate primary will hold on Monday, May 18, while the State Houses of Assembly primary is slated for Wednesday, May 20. The governorship and presidential primaries are expected to hold on May 21 and May 23 respectively.
According to Daily Trust, APC did not officially state reasons for the postponement, party sources attributed the development to unresolved screening issues and disagreements over consensus arrangements in several states.
A source within the ruling party disclosed that some aspirants raised concerns over their screening results, which delayed preparations and affected the deployment of party officials to monitor the primaries across the states.
Investigations further revealed that the APC leadership and governors had been pushing for consensus arrangements to produce candidates for the 360 House of Representatives seats, but many aspirants reportedly rejected the move and insisted on direct primaries.
Another party source said the postponement would allow the leadership more time to persuade aggrieved aspirants to embrace consensus and also address logistical challenges in states where direct primaries would be conducted.
The House of Representatives primaries are expected to produce candidates for all federal constituencies across the country. It was gathered that no fewer than 821 aspirants purchased nomination forms for the APC House of Representatives tickets.
Meanwhile, President Bola Tinubu has appealed to aspirants and party leaders to avoid actions capable of causing division within the APC during the primaries.
The President urged aspirants who might lose out in the contests not to destabilise the party, stressing that the opposition was waiting for the ruling party to become divided.
He also called on party leaders and governors to ensure fairness and provide a level playing field for all aspirants.
(Daily Trust)
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