Politics
2023 elections in jeopardy over in-fighting at INEC
There is palpable tension in the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, over the continued push by the All Progressives Congress, APC, leadership to ensure the participation of Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, and Godswill Akpabio, in the 2023 senatorial elections of Yobe North Senatorial District and Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District, respectively.
Contrary to what the leadership of INEC had told Nigerians, that the commission is legally bound to stand by the monitoring reports received from “our state offices”, verified pieces of information available to Vanguard suggest that INEC may have ignored these reports in some states of the federation including Kano, Sokoto, Abia, Ogun, Oyo, Akwa lbom.
This has not gone down well with some Resident Electoral Commissioners, RECs, according to Vanguard sources.
In fact, morale of INEC staff at some of the state offices has been dampened because some of the reports of the monitoring committees are either being tampered with or ignored.
As a result of this, INEC has instigated and encouraged so many litigations in various federal high courts across the country. As at the last count, the Commission acknowledged that there are over 300 cases filed in court that it is joined as a party.
That is not all.
The Election and Political Parties’ Monitoring, EPM, and Legal Department of the Commission, under the direction and control of INEC leadership, have become theatres of intrigues, as politicians are preying on both departments to perfect their underhand ploys.
As it is for APC, so it is for PDP
APC and intrigues at INEC Hq
It was reliably informed by highly strategic sources at INEC headquarters that the Commission accepted from leadership of the APC, particulars of candidates that claimed to have conducted primaries that its State offices did not monitor.
For instance, in Kano, where the REC, Professor Risikuwa Shehu-Arabu, addressed the press recently that the only governorship primary the state office monitored produced Mohammed Abacha, son of maximum dictator General Sani Abacha, this was changed by APC leadership and INEC’s EPM Department for one Ambassador Sadiq Wali.
In Yobe State, where Senate President Ahmed Lawan has tried unsuccessfully, so far, with APC leadership, to intimidate Bashir Sheriff Machina, the winner of the senatorial election to step down, other forces have been mobilised, with a view to getting the name of the senate president on the ballot.
REC Makama rebuffed all entreaties.
The letter would have suggested that the APC leadership had earlier given indication to INEC that a fresh senatorial primary was in the offing as early as June 7, 2022, wherein the senate president may have participated in a primary monitored by INEC as stipulated by law.
But the letter itself would have created an impossible scenario as Senator Lawan was contesting for the presidential ticket at the party’s convention in Abuja at about June 7, 2022.
Under section 84(1) of the Electoral Act 2022, monitoring of party primaries by INEC is mandatory. The Act used the word, shall, twice, to underscore the importance.
It states that “A political party seeking to nominate candidates for elections under this Act shall hold primaries for aspirants to all elective positions which shall be monitored by the Commission”
Section 29(1) of the 2022 Act provides that only “candidates that emerged from valid primary” can be submitted to INEC for publication.
Section 84(13) states that where a political party fails to comply with the provision of the Act, INEC shall reject the names submitted to it by political parties.
Just as it happened in Kano, the story is same in Abia, where, in the previously published particulars of NASS candidates, INEC that monitored Abia Central Senatorial District primary won by Hon. Sam Onuigbo, who defeated his closest rival, Chief Henry Okoh, by 157 to 152 votes, INEC has, surprisingly, accepted from APC, one Emeka Atuma, who Onuigbo alleged, did not buy nomination form for senate and never participated in the process, to replace the winner.
Again in the just published particulars of candidates 48 hours ago, APC NWC first wrote a letter for the use of direct mode of primary that was monitored by INEC state office, but another parallel primary with indirect method was allegedly held at another venue not monitored by INEC, yet a former civil servant staff of INEC recently appointed as national commissioner instructed that the name of the individual from the so called indirect primary conducted without ward, LGA and state delegates should be forwarded and the primary monitored by state office ignored.
Worst still is Akwa lbom State, where out of the 26 candidates that emerged from valid primary conducted and monitored by INEC state office, only two names were taken from the report of the state office.
No APC governorship candidate, in line with the state office report.
Instead, the APC leadership chose to pick just two names from the list of primaries monitored by INEC, and uploaded to INEC 24 names of candidates not monitored by INEC.
Curiously, INEC published names of candidates not monitored by its state office. and published by the election management body remains a puzzle.
A former Kano State Governor and leader of the Kwankwasiyya Movement, Rabiu Kwankwaso, says northern political leaders conducted a deliberate assessment of potential allies before settling on Peter Obi as the most capable partner to prosecute the 2027 presidential campaign.
He dismissed concerns about a hidden power struggle between his camp and Obi’s.Politics
Kwankwaso made the disclosure in an interview on Arise TV on Monday, offering one of his most detailed accounts yet of how the North-Southeast political alliance within the NDC was formed.
“I looked around together with our leadership in the north to say, okay, who do we think is capable? Who can come and work together with us honestly so that we can move this country? Along the line, we realised that Peter Obi is at the forefront of it. That’s why we all accepted to work together,” he said.Political candidate profile
Kwankwaso, a two-term former governor of Kano State and the presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party in 2023, leads the Kwankwasiyya movement, a grassroots political force with deep loyalty across Kano and parts of northern Nigeria.Nigeria travel guide
He left the NNPP amid internal disputes before joining the NDC alongside Obi earlier this month.
Obi, a former governor of Anambra State, ran on the Labour Party platform in 2023 and drew massive youth-driven support across the South and urban centres, though he did not win.
Both men formally joined the NDC on Sunday, May 3, defecting from the crisis-hit African Democratic Congress.Politics
At the party’s national convention on Saturday in Abuja, Kwankwaso backed the NDC’s decision to zone its 2027 presidential ticket to the South, describing it as a step toward fairness, healing and national cohesion.
Responding to a question about whether the alliance concealed a quiet rivalry between both camps, Kwankwaso argued that friction between principals and their deputies was a product of greed, not structural tension.
“The problem people are having, especially leaders, is that they are too greedy to the extent that they begin to have issues. There is so much to do. You don’t have to fight your deputy,” he said.
He said his record as a former deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, and later as governor of Kano State, showed that political partnerships could hold under pressure.
“I had an opportunity to work with my speaker and we worked very well. I was in Kano for eight years despite the difficulty of my then deputy governor. We were able to work for eight years amicably to the extent that I handed over to him,” he said.
Kwankwaso extended the argument beyond his personal experience, saying the same principle applied at the federal level.
In the Senate and other places, in the NDDC, we worked amicably with people. There is so much to be done and that’s why you have even ministers, other executives, advisors and so on. I don’t see from my experiences of the past why deputies or vice would fight with the president or governor,” he said.
He grounded the alliance in Nigerian political history, tracing a lineage of productive North-Southeast partnerships from the first republic to the present.Nigeria travel guide
“Right from the beginning, this sort of alliance has been in existence. Now we are going back to what Tafawa Balewa did during their time,” he said.
He also referenced the collaboration between former Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa and leaders of the NCNC, as well as that of former President Shehu Shagari and his vice president, Alex Ekwueme, in the second republic.
“So also in the second republic, immediately after the war, our leaders, Shagari and others, worked very closely with the southeast, with Alex Ekwueme as his vice president. They are our friends. We want to work together with them,” he said.Politics
Kwankwaso also noted that subsequent administrations had shifted power-sharing away from the South-East, a pattern he suggested the current alliance was correcting.
“There was a change during the third republic where for many obvious reasons an election was annulled and the government under the military decided to bring in Shonekan from the South-West.
Even after that, the military and other leaders worked together and brought in Chief Olusegun Obasanjo from the South-West again. Even Bola Tinubu probably is a beneficiary of all that,” he said.
He was emphatic that the choice of Obi was not driven by regional sentiment alone.
“It wasn’t just because we are going to the South-West just because of the South-West. No. We realised that Peter Obi is at the forefront of it and that’s why we all accepted to work together,” he said.Political candidate profile
The movement of both men into the NDC has triggered a wave of defections, with senators, House of Representatives members and political blocs aligned with their former coalition gravitating toward the new party, rapidly reshaping calculations ahead of the 2027 elections.
The alliance pairs Kwankwaso’s northern grassroots structure and disciplined voter mobilisation with Obi’s national youth engagement and urban electoral momentum, positioning the NDC as one of the main opposition platforms set to challenge President Bola Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress in 2027
Former Kano State Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso has dismissed suggestions that his exit from the African Democratic Congress has created a damaging split in the opposition.
He said he and Atiku Abubakar may yet work together before the 2027 general election.
Kwankwaso spoke in an interview on Arise TV on Monday, responding to concerns that his move to the Nigeria Democratic Congress alongside Peter Obi had effectively divided the opposition into two competing blocs ahead of the polls.
“Now, we may still work together before the election. I personally, and I think even Obi himself, decided to leave ADC not because we are fighting with Atiku or anybody there. We decided to leave that party because we realised that there are some issues,” he said
He said the ADC was contending with three major unresolved problems that he believed would make it difficult for the party to field candidates, without specifying what those issues were.
“Whether they will be able to field candidates in that party or not is just a matter of time. It’s not like we had a primary election,” he said
The remarks come after Atiku recently claimed on Arise TV that Kwankwaso’s popularity was confined to Kano State and further divided there by Governor Abba Yusuf.
Atiku, who is seeking the presidency on the ADC platform, also described himself as the most popular politician of northern extraction, saying none of his contemporaries, including Kwankwaso, Aminu Tambuwal and Nasir El-Rufai, commanded a voter base across the North as wide as his.
Kwankwaso did not engage the slight directly, but made clear he bore no grudge.
“Politics is just like a game. I’m not fighting anybody and I’m not expecting anybody to fight me. I have no issue with that. I think we are past that level now,” he said.
He challenged those predicting a vote split in Kano to wait for the election result before drawing conclusions.
“Let’s wait for the election and see whether votes are split in Kano or not,” he said.
Kwankwaso also acknowledged a history of working with Atiku, recalling that he served as the former vice president’s northern coordinator during the 2019 presidential election.
“There was an election in 2019 in Port Harcourt. He won the election. I was his coordinator for the north. We worked for him,” he said.
He traced his broader relationship with Atiku to the 2015 APC presidential primary in Lagos, where he placed second behind Muhammadu Buhari, with Atiku third.
By Okey Maduforo, Awka
The Anambra State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has expelled 30 members of the party for instituting legal actions against the party.
The affected members include some aspirants for the National Assembly, and their expulsion may disqualify them from participating in the party’s primary elections.
Disclosing this shortly after the meeting of the State Executive Committee (SEC) of the party, the State Publicity Secretary, Dr. Sir Valentine Iyiegbu, told reporters that the decision was in line with Section 21, Subsection 5 of the party’s constitution.
“The party discussed those who took the party to court, and many of them are contesting for the House of Representatives tickets of the party,” he said.
“The matter comes up tomorrow, and the SEC stated that what the party constitution stipulates would be followed, which is outright expulsion from the party under Article 21, Subsection 5.”
“The SEC actually ratified their expulsion because they did not exhaust all the internal avenues provided by the party to resolve their grievances,” he added.
Iyiegbu noted that the only reprieve available to the expelled members would be for them to withdraw their court cases.
“It is only when the matters are withdrawn from the court that the party can consider listening to them,” he said.
Speaking on the party’s primary elections, he explained:
“In the case of those contesting for the tickets of the Federal House of Representatives, all the eleven positions have aspirants, while for the Senate, the three positions are also being contested. The screening committees were here to perform their duties,” he noted.
The party also ratified the appointment of a five-man Primary Elections Committee headed by Sir Izuchukwu Okeke, the State Organising Secretary of the party.
By PETRUS OBI
Frontline aspirant for the Aninri/Awgu/Oji-River Federal Constituency seat, Anayo Onwuegbu, has successfully completed the screening exercise conducted by the All Progressives Congress House of Representatives screening panel in Abuja ahead of the party primaries scheduled for Friday, May 15, 2026.
Speaking after the exercise, Onwuegbu expressed satisfaction with the screening process, describing it as a reflection of the party’s commitment to internal democracy, transparency, and credible leadership selection ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The aspirant, who is seeking to represent Aninri/Awgu/Oji-River Federal Constituency under the platform of the APC, stated that he remains focused and prepared to continue to offer quality representation to the people of the constituency.
According to him, “The process once again highlights our party’s commitment to internal democracy, transparency, and the emergence of credible leadership as we prepare for the 2027 general elections.”
He reaffirmed his dedication to the development of the constituency, pledging to serve the people with commitment and purpose if elected.
The APC House of Representatives primaries are expected to hold nationwide on Friday as aspirants battle for the party’s tickets ahead of the 2027 elections.
By Okey Maduforo, Awka
Ten communities that make up Anaocha Local Government Area of Anambra State are set for a showdown with their traditional rulers following the alleged suspension of the zoning arrangement for the Anambra State House of Assembly elections.
Recall that on April 7, 2022, the traditional rulers, in a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), resolved that the House of Assembly seats for Anaocha I and Anaocha II constituencies would rotate among the ten communities, with each town occupying the seat for two terms.
The traditional rulers further resolved that the rotation would subsist irrespective of the political party through which lawmakers emerge, noting that the arrangement was aimed at ensuring that all ten communities have the opportunity to produce members of the State Assembly in the interest of equity and fairness.
However, the Anaocha Equity Forum, shortly after its meeting, expressed concern over the alleged suspension of the zoning arrangement.
Speaking, the Convener of the Anaocha Equity Forum, Mr. Valentine Okoye, said the forum would not take kindly to what it described as acts capable of destabilising the council area, adding that any such move would be resisted.
“This is a Memorandum of Understanding signed by our traditional rulers, and it has been respected until now. We in the Anaocha Equity Forum see this as a slap on the sensibilities of the ten communities that make up the area,” he said.
“We urge members of the public, political parties, and stakeholders to disregard the alleged position of the traditional rulers, as it does not represent the views and aspirations of our people.
“Our traditional rulers should be mindful of their roles as fathers of their respective communities. They should also understand that they would be held responsible for whatever backlash or consequences may arise from this recent position.
“We call on Governor Charles Soludo to call the traditional rulers to order so that the peace currently enjoyed in Anaocha Local Government Area will not be disrupted,” he stated.
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