By Ayodele Oni

For the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), processes for submission of candidates for national Assembly contest, next year is foreclosed, despite reactions from candidates whose names were dropped from the list.

The party confirmed that the comprehensive list containing names of contestants for national Assembly election has been submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

However, protest from those dropped from the list and their supporters continued in state like Ondo.

In the submitted list, the APC National Working Committee (NWC) dropped former Benue Governor, Gabriel Suswam and five other senatorial candidates from the party’s final lists of candidates forwarded to the INEC.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that former Ondo State House of Representatives member, Gbenga Elegbeleye was also dropped from the list among others.

Also contained in the final lists of dropped and replaced candidates forwarded to INEC, are 19 House of Representatives candidates that emerged victorious in the party’s primary elections held in May 2026.

According to the document forwarded to INEC, the states affected were Abia, Kogi, Taraba, Benue,Ebonyi, Ondo, Kaduna, Niger and Kwara.

In the letter sent to INEC and signed by APC National Chairman, Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, and its National Secretary, Ajibola Basiru, the party attributed the changes to the report of its Primary Election Appeal Committee.

The letter was titled: “Forwarding of approved list of senatorial and House of Representatives candidates :

The letter reads:“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.

“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.

“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.”

Sen. Godswill Akpabio, President of the Senate, his deputy, Sen. Jibrin Barau, Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele, Senate Chief Whip Mohammed Monguno and Sen. Adams Oshiomhole received their Candidate Affidavit Forms (EC9).

Four state governors are among the candidates whose names were uploaded by the APC to the INEC portal.

The four governors are AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara, Hope Uzodimma of Imo, Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa and Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe who had all been cleared by the party to contest Senate seats.

Also cleared are former Kaduna State Governor Mukhtar Yero, Sen. Shehu Sani and Sen. Sunday Katung to contest Senate seats in Kaduna State.

Former Kogi Governor, Yahaya Bello secured the party’s ticket for the Kogi Central Senatorial District, he is among the 109 senatorial candidates running on the APC platform.

The uploading of candidates’ particulars, a continuous process, followed the ratification of the results of the April shadow polls and a review of the list in line with the outcome of the Primary Appeal Reports and INEC’S guidelines.

Report added that for the House of Representatives, Speaker Abbas Tajudeen, Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu, Mudashiru Obasa and James Faleke are among candidates to fly APC’s flag.

According to Mr Felix Morka, the APC National Publicity Secretary, the party received over 700 petitions from aggrieved members on the ongoing process.

He, however said that the party’s priority now, was for all its candidates to complete their INEC nomination forms and have them uploaded to the commission’s portal.

He said those who emerged as the party’s candidates, were being provided with the relevant forms for documentation.

“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.

“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,” Morka said.

Political parties are expected to upload names and particulars of their presidential and National Assembly candidates on INEC’S nomination portal between 9 a.m from June 27, to 6p.m July 10, when the portal would be closed.

The documents to be uploaded include Form EC9, containing candidates’ personal particulars, and Forms EC9A, EC9B, EC9C, EC9D and EC9E, containing the names and lists of nominated candidates.

In the meantime, INEC had earlier conducted a two-day training for political party officials on the use of its Candidate Nomination Portal (ICNP) ahead of the exercise, after which parties were issued access codes.

The training was conducted by officials of the commission’s ICT Department in line with its established practice of ensuring that stakeholders were properly prepared for electoral processes.

Prof. Ibrahim Sani, the acting Director-General of the Electoral Institute, had earlier said that candidate nomination was a fundamental stage of the electoral process.

He said the success of any election began with the proper nomination of candidates, adding that political parties must fully understand and comply with the legal and procedural requirements guiding the process.