APC and INEC Fight Over Official Senate List After Chaotic Party Primaries Produce Too Many Winners

A major political storm is brewing in Abuja as the Independent National Electoral Commission and the ruling All Progressives Congress prepare to lock horns over who gets the final stamp of approval on the official candidate list for the Senate.

The mounting tension is the direct result of a highly chaotic primary election cycle within the ruling party. Across several states, internal power struggles and bitter rivalries saw opposing party factions organize separate, parallel primaries. Because multiple exercises were held simultaneously in the same districts, the APC has ended up with completely different sets of “winners”—all holding certificates of return and demanding that their names be uploaded to the national electoral register.

The problem has placed the APC leadership in a tight corner, but the real pressure is coming from INEC’s IT and legal departments. The electoral umpire has made it clear that its digital candidate upload portal is programmed to be entirely indifferent to internal party agreements or political balancing acts.

Commission officials have warned that any list containing names produced from late, unmonitored, or legally questionable primaries will be flatly rejected. INEC insists that the timelines outlined in the Electoral Act are set in stone and cannot be stretched to accommodate the ruling party’s internal housekeeping delays.

“We are not going to bend the rules or extend upload deadlines for any association, regardless of its size or status,” a senior administrative source at the INEC headquarters revealed. “Our monitoring teams were on the ground during the legally scheduled windows. If a party submits a name that does not match the official field reports compiled by our state offices, that slot will remain empty. The digital portal closes automatically, and once it shuts, only a direct order from a superior court can reopen it.”

The rigid stance from the electoral body has sparked widespread panic at the APC headquarters. The party’s National Working Committee has been holding late-night, closed-door emergency hearings to try and pacify aggrieved aspirants. The stakes are incredibly high, as several influential sitting senators who lost out during the chaotic state screenings are openly accusing party bosses of favoritism and candidate imposition.

Legal teams representing these disgruntled lawmakers have already drafted pre-election lawsuits, vowing to slam injunctions on both the APC and INEC if the party attempts to smuggle in alternative names through the back door.

With the countdown clock ticking down fast, the ruling party faces a race against time to clean up its ledger. If the APC fails to present a single, legally sound list of candidates before the portal locks, it risks the ultimate political penalty: being completely disqualified from participating in the senatorial elections across key flashpoint districts. As both institutions refuse to back down, the brewing clash promises to reshape the balance of power in the legislature long before the first ballot is even cast.