Turmoil has engulfed the All Progressives Congress in Kaduna State over the just-concluded senatorial primaries. Former Speaker Yusuf Ibrahim Zailani, ex-Senator Danjuma Laah, and dozens of other aspirants are rejecting the results outright.
They insist no legitimate primary election took place anywhere in the state. Party members staged protests across Kaduna metropolis to register their displeasure.
Zailani, who ran for Kaduna Central, called the entire exercise a "sham" devoid of credibility. He noted that voters in all seven local government areas of his zone waited hours without seeing ballot papers or election officials.
Speaking through Cafra Caino, his campaign deputy director-general, Zailani lambasted the process. It failed to meet standards set by the APC National Working Committee, Caino told journalists.
"Party members showed up at ward and local offices ready to vote," Caino explained. "After waiting for several hours, nothing happened.
There were no materials, no officials, nothing."
His campaign council flatly rejected the announced results for Kaduna Central Senatorial Zone. According to Caino, the outcome doesn't represent what party members actually want.
Zailani's team demanded the APC National Working Committee step in immediately. They called for a fresh primary run according to democratic standards and party rules.
Former Senator Laah led other disgruntled aspirants in demanding cancellation of primaries across all three senatorial zones. Michael Ayuba Auta, Yusuf Bala Ikara, and others joined the chorus of complaints.
Protesters chanted slogans demanding their preferred candidates and democracy preservation. "There was no APC primaries in Kaduna," they insisted to reporters.
Laah specifically accused party leaders of abandoning the direct primary system they'd approved. He noted the NWC had officially endorsed direct voting at ward level, not delegates.
"What happened here was an unauthorised delegate system," the ex-senator alleged. Party hierarchy simply ignored their own guidelines, he argued.
Ward-level voting never occurred as required, the aggrieved group maintained. They singled out Kaduna South's primary that produced Senator Sunday Marshall Katung as particularly problematic.
That election lacked transparency and proper oversight, they claimed. Electoral materials never reached several wards and polling centres, they said.
Laah argued the entire exercise violated Section 84 of the Electoral Act 2022. It also breached Article 20 of the APC constitution governing nomination procedures and internal democracy.
The dissidents want the APC National Working Committee to nullify everything. They're also asking the party's appeals committee and INEC to conduct fresh primaries across the three zones.
Without intervention, the cracks widening within Kaduna APC could deepen further. The 2027 elections are now just around the corner for party strategists.
