The North-Central Forum of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has issued a two-week ultimatum to the party's National Chairman, Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, demanding his resignation over allegations of commercializing the recently concluded primary elections. The Forum accused the Yilwatda-led National Working Committee (NWC) of being responsible for the disputes and controversies that marred the ruling party's State Assembly, National Assembly, governorship, and presidential primaries.
Allegations of Manipulation
The group alleged that results were overturned to favor candidates who aligned with party officials, while in several cases, aspirants poised to win primary elections were screened out. These allegations were detailed in a statement released on Friday by the Forum's National Chairman, Alhaji Saleh Zazzaga. The statement highlighted that the national chairman and members of his executive committee should be held accountable for flouting party rules.
Ultimatum Deadline
The Forum warned that it would take legal action against the National Chairman if he fails to resign by June 12, 2026, which marks Nigeria's Democracy Day. The statement read: "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."
Discrepancies in Presidential Primary Results
To justify their claims of manipulated outcomes, the APC group pointed to alleged discrepancies between official party records and the votes recorded for President Bola Tinubu in the presidential primary election. Chairman of the APC Presidential Primary Election Committee, former Senate President Pius Anyim, announced that Tinubu won with 10,999,162 votes, defeating challenger Stanley Osifo, who received 16,503 votes. The announced result sparked controversy due to suggestions that the figures were inflated.
The Forum argued that the figures released by the committee did not align with official party data, indicating manipulation. "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 registered voters are eligible to vote. So this means that, all over the country, what they did was selection of candidates, not election," the statement said.
Impact on Party Unity
The Forum further lamented that the party has been weakened by the controversy trailing the primaries, with several key members resigning to join other political parties over perceived injustice. Notable among them is a former Deputy President of the Senate, Ovie Omo-Agege, who resigned protesting his loss in the Delta Central senate primary. He has since moved to the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) and has reportedly been granted a waiver to contest the senatorial election. Additionally, the national chairman's former Chief of Staff, Mustapha Bala Dawaki, resigned from the party in protest after losing the return ticket for the Dawakin Kudu/Warawa Constituency of Kano State. Dawaki also defected to the NDC.
