The All Progressives Congress has begun feeding 28 governorship and 993 State Houses of Assembly candidates' details into the Independent National Electoral Commission's Candidate Nomination Portal. The party is prioritising 16 sitting governors who're bidding for second terms.
The incumbent governors include Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom, Hyacinth Alia of Benue, Uba Sani of Kaduna, Abba Yusuf of Kano, Dikko Radda of Katsina, Nasir Idris of Kebbi, Umaru Bago of Niger, Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau, Ahmad Aliyu of Sokoto, Agbu Kefas of Taraba and Dauda Lawal of Zamfara. The party is also uploading 12 first-time governorship candidates to the portal.
These newcomers include Obafemi Hamzat of Lagos, Solomon Adeola from Ogun, Ogundu Kingsley Chinda of Rivers, Eric Opah of Abia, Mohammed Abubakar from Bauchi, Mustapha Gubio of Borno, Jamilu Gwamna from Gombe, Ahmed Aliyu Wadada of Nasarawa and Baba Malam Wali of Yobe. The APC is racing against time to meet the 2027 general elections deadline.
The party's Information and Communications Technology department began processing candidate documents on Saturday at the APC National Headquarters in Abuja. A special vetting committee has been set up to examine the nomination paperwork before submission to the electoral body.
Jibrin Bancir, Principal Private Secretary to the APC National Chairman, heads the committee, according to a party source. "The committee is responsible for collecting and verifying all nomination forms from state chairmen before passing them to the ICT unit," the source told reporters.
"We're taking no chances ahead of the August 8 deadline for closure of the portal," the party insider added. The electoral commission opened the portal on July 18 and will shut it automatically on August 8, 2026.
Governorship elections won't take place in Anambra, Bayelsa, Edo, Ekiti, Imo, Kogi, Ondo and Osun because these states operate off-cycle electoral schedules. The APC had already submitted its presidential and National Assembly candidates to the commission.
