Trending 
The All Progressives Congress has dropped former Benue State Governor Gabriel Suswam and five other senatorial candidates from its final list of candidates forwarded to the Independent National Electoral Commission, the party said.
The party also dropped 19 House of Representatives candidates who had emerged victorious in the May 2026 primaries, according to a letter sent to INEC and signed by APC National Chairman Professor Nentawe Yilwatda and National Secretary Ajibola Basiru.
The states affected are Abia, Kogi, Taraba, Benue, Ebonyi, Ondo, Kaduna, Niger and Kwara.
The letter titled “Forwarding of approved list of senatorial and House of Representatives candidates” attributed the changes to the report of the Primary Election Appeal Committee.
“We write to formally forward the attached list of the party’s candidates for the affected senatorial and House of Representatives constituencies arising from the report of the Primary Election Appeal Committee,” the letter read.
“Following the determination of appeals from the recently concluded primary elections, the reports of the Appeal Committee were reviewed and subsequently considered and approved by the party’s NWC as its final position on the affected constituencies.”
The party said the list contained approved candidates for seven senatorial districts and 19 House of Representatives constituencies.
“In accordance with the amended Electoral Act 2022 and INEC’s regulations and guidelines, we hereby transmit the enclosed list of the approved candidates for seven senatorial districts and 19 House of Representatives constituencies for your records and necessary action. Please accept the assurances of our highest regards.”
Meanwhile, Senate President Godswill Akpabio; his deputy, Senator Jibrin Barau; Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele; Senate Chief Whip Mohammed Monguno; and Senator Adams Oshiomhole have received their Candidate Affidavit Forms (EC9).
Four state governors are among the candidates whose names were uploaded by the APC to the INEC portal: AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara, Hope Uzodimma of Imo, Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa and Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe.
Former Kaduna State Governor Mukhtar Yero, Senator Shehu Sani and Senator Sunday Katung have also been cleared to contest Senate seats in Kaduna State.
Former Kogi Governor Yahaya Bello secured the party’s ticket for the Kogi Central Senatorial District and is among the 109 APC senatorial candidates.
For the House of Representatives, Speaker Abbas Tajudeen, Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu, Mudashiru Obasa and James Faleke are among the candidates to fly the APC flag.
APC National Publicity Secretary Felix Morka said the party received over 700 petitions from aggrieved members on the ongoing process.
“They are to complete and return the forms to the party for upload to the INEC portal, so, making the list public is not our priority now,” Morka said.
“Although we will eventually release the list, our immediate priority is to ensure that our candidates complete their forms and meet INEC’S deadline. This is more important to us than the public release of the candidates’ list.
“Those who are our candidates have, by now, received their forms. They already know themselves; there is no tension about that.”
