The All Progressives Congress (APC) has released the names of senatorial aspirants disqualified from its Senate primaries, raising fresh questions about the party’s internal process on the very day the elections are set to hold.
The disclosure came through an official statement issued by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, on Monday morning, the same day the Senate primaries are to take place.
According to the party’s timetable, the Senate primary elections are scheduled for Monday, May 18, 2026, with State Houses of Assembly primaries set to follow on Wednesday, May 20.
The statement, characteristically terse in its official language, offered no individual reasons for the disqualifications. The reasons for the disqualification of the aspirants were not revealed in the statement, drawing sharp reactions from those affected and raising fresh concerns about transparency in the process.
“The All Progressives Congress (APC) hereby releases the list of senatorial aspirants not cleared to participate in the party’s Senate primary elections. The screening exercise was conducted by the Party’s screening committees in accordance with established procedures and guidelines,” the statement read.
The development follows a similarly contentious pattern established during the House of Representatives primaries held on Saturday, May 16. At least 14 aspirants were disqualified during the screening for the House of Representatives, with Morka confirming they had failed to clear the party’s screening exercise conducted in line with established procedures and guidelines yet without providing specific reasons.
The broader primary season has been marked by turbulence, power plays, and open accusations of manipulation. From Rivers to Edo, Imo, Lagos, Kwara, Benue, Ekiti, Plateau, and Cross River, the primaries have exposed widening fractures within the ruling party, as governors, power blocs, and political godfathers have wrestled for control of candidacies, sidelining several sitting legislators.
Nowhere has the tension been more pronounced than in Rivers State. The party disqualified four loyalists of Governor Siminalayi Fubara, including former presidential aspirant Tein Jackrich; Director of Energy Security in the Office of the National Security Adviser Ojukaye Flag-Amachree; and former Secretary to the State Government Dr. Tammy Danagogo, while clearing figures widely viewed as allies of former FCT minister Nyesom Wike, including former PDP state chairman Felix Obuah and Senator Allwell Onyesoh.
The process had already been beset by allegations of financial inducement ahead of the primaries. The North-Central APC Forum alleged that national officers of the party were going around states collecting money from aspirants while promising them APC tickets, warning that such conduct could lead to a crisis ahead of the general elections. The party denied the allegations.
In a bid to calm tensions, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, urged all members and stakeholders to uphold transparency and fairness and remain peaceful during the exercise.
President Bola Tinubu similarly called on party members to embrace sportsmanship and unity, warning against rancorous conduct capable of undermining the APC’s strength ahead of the 2026 general elections.
Regarding the voting process, the party also moved to clarify that there is no requirement for party members to show proof of payment of APC membership dues in order to vote in the ongoing primaries, reaffirming that all duly registered members are entitled to participate.
The dues requirement, Morka noted, applied only to aspirants and their nominators during submission of nomination forms and the screening exercise.
As the Senate primaries get underway today, all eyes will be on whether the party can deliver a credible and dispute-free exercise or whether the disqualifications, widely perceived in some quarters as politically motivated, will trigger a fresh wave of legal challenges and defections from the country’s ruling party.
Here is the list below:
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
The APC’s ongoing 2026 primary elections have been significantly overshadowed by controversy, as the party bars senatorial aspirants from participating without offering transparent reasons for their disqualification.
The process has exposed deep internal divisions driven by political godfathers, governors, and power brokers manipulating outcomes, most visibly in Rivers State, where the Wike-Fubara power struggle played out directly in the screening results.
Allegations of monetization and imposition further dent the credibility of an exercise that President Tinubu has publicly urged to be free and fair.
