APC Completes INEC Portal Upload, Fixes Date For Tinubu And Vice Presidential Nomination

The All Progressives Congress, APC, has said it is on course to meet the July 11 deadline set by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, for the submission of its candidates for the presidential and National Assembly elections for the 2027 general elections.

A senior member of the party’s National Working Committee, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the uploading of candidates’ details had reached advanced stage.

Details of President Bola Tinubu and his running mate were expected to be uploaded to the INEC portal by the middle of the week, the source said.

The details of our National Assembly candidates are being uploaded smoothly, the source told The Nation.

“We will upload the details of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his running mate on or before next Wednesday. “We are very sure that by July 11, we shall have uploaded all our candidates on the INEC portal.”

Checks at the APC’s Information and Communications Technology department at the Muhammadu Buhari House national secretariat in Abuja on Sunday showed that the party’s technical team had been interacting with the INEC portal without interruption.

Most of the principal officers of the 10th National Assembly and some serving lawmakers have already had their details uploaded, sources in the department said.

They said the details of four serving governors; Mahlon AbdulRazaq of Kwara State; Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State; Hope Uzodimma of Imo State and Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State had also been uploaded to the portal of the electoral commission.

The governors are among prominent APC members that picked the party’s senatorial tickets ahead of the 2027 general elections.

The race to beat the INEC deadline followed a review of the APC primary elections after hundreds of petitions were filed by aggrieved aspirants.

The party recently submitted a revised list of candidates to the INEC after its NWC dropped six senatorial and 19 House of Representatives candidates who had earlier emerged from the May primaries.

The changes touched constituencies in Abia, Kogi, Taraba, Benue, Ebonyi, Ondo, Kaduna, Niger and Kwara states.

The changes followed recommendations by the party’s Primary Election Appeal Committee.

A letter conveying the revised list was sent to INEC and signed by the APC National Chairman, Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda and the National Secretary, Ajibola Basiru.

The APC National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, said the ruling party received over 700 petitions from aggrieved members after the conclusion of its primaries.

Morka said that after the conclusion of their shadow elections, the party received over 700 petitions from aggrieved members.

Then the party’s leadership considered the recommendations that arose from the petitions, leading to some constituency changes, while candidates who managed to defend their victories via the appeal process retained their tickets.

Morka would not say when the final list of candidates of the APC would be published.

“The party’s first line of action is to make sure that all the nominated candidates fill and return their INEC Form EC9 nomination documents on time before the deadline,” he said.

“Our immediate absolute priority now is to ensure that our designated candidates properly complete and return their Form EC9 nomination documents for uploading before the INEC deadline rather than releasing the list to the public,” he said.

Some changes came out of the appeal process, but many of the major APC figures retained their tickets, including sitting governors who want to go to the Senate in 2027.