APC Primaries: North-Central Forum Warns National Chair Yilwatda to Resign or Face Court Action

The North‑Central All Progressives Congress (APC) Forum has issued a two‑week ultimatum to the party’s National Chairman, Prof Nentawe Yilwatda, demanding his resignation over what it calls the monetization of the recently concluded primary elections.

The Forum specifically blamed the Yilwatda‑led APC National Working Committee (NWC) for the crisis and controversy surrounding the State Assembly, National Assembly, governorship and presidential primaries of the ruling party.

In a statement released on Friday by its National Chairman, Alhaji Saleh Zazzaga, the Forum alleged that results were overturned to favor those who complied with party officials, while aspirants who were expected to win were excluded.

During the primaries, the North‑Central APC Forum warned of what it described as shoddy conduct, claiming the process had been commercialised by party officials. The Forum also said that more than 50 percent of APC members were dissatisfied with how the primaries were conducted.

Highlighting its observations on Friday, after the primaries concluded, the North‑Central APC Forum said the national chairman and members of his executive committee should be held accountable for flouting party rules.

The Forum warned that it would take the national chairman to court if he fails to resign by June 12, when the country will mark Democracy Day 2026.

“We are issuing a two‑week ultimatum to the national chairman to resign because of incompetence, violation of the party’s constitution, monetization of the just concluded party primaries and changing the results when it favoured those perceived as not in his camp,” the statement read.

“We have it on good authority that the national chairman and his team used their position to change the results and influence the outcome of primary elections across the country,” the statement added.

Justifying its claim that the outcome of the primaries was manipulated in several cases, the APC group pointed to alleged discrepancies in party official records and the number of votes recorded for President Bola Tinubu in the presidential primary election.

Chairman of the APC Presidential Primary Election Committee, former Senate President Pius Anyim, announced that Tinubu won with a total of 10,999,162 votes, defeating his challenger, Mr Stanley Osifo, who received 16,503 votes.

The announced result has stirred controversy following suggestions that figures used for the primaries were inflated.

The APC Forum, in the statement, argued that the fact that figures released by the committee did not tally with official party data shows that officials manipulated the outcome of the primaries.

“We are concerned that the NWC under the national chairman did not tally the official data of the party with the presidential primary election. The party has eight million registered voters but when they released the result of Mr President in the presidential primary they wrote more than 10 million votes,” the statement said.

“The guidelines stated that only those that are registered are going to vote. So this means that, all over the country, what they did was selection of candidates, not election,” the statement continued.

The Forum further lamented that the party has been weakened as a result of the controversy trailing the primaries, with several key members resigning to join other political parties over perceived injustice.

A former Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo‑Agege, is the latest party chieftain to resign while protesting his loss in the Delta Central senate primary. He has since moved to the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) and has, reportedly, been given a waiver to contest the senatorial election.

The North‑Central APC Forum also pointed out that the national chairman’s former Chief of Staff, Mustapha Bala Dawaki, resigned from the party in protest after losing the return ticket of the Dawakin Kudu/Warawa Constituency of Kano State. Dawaki also moved to the NDC.

“It is because of these infractions that we are asking the national chairman to resign before two weeks, or we will sue him to court. If after that two weeks he refuses to resign we will start a court process and we will present evidence of monetization of the party primaries and reducing the value of the party which is why key members are complaining of injustice and leaving the APC for other parties,” the statement added.

“It is clear that the national chairman does not have the experience to settle the grievances that are arising from the primary elections. They sent people that lack the necessary political experience to the states to conduct the primaries, which is why we are witnessing all these problems,” the statement concluded.