The All Progressives Congress has shifted its House of Representatives primary election to Saturday, May 16, following intense internal pushback over attempts to adopt a consensus model. The widespread resistance forced the party’s National Working Committee to rethink its strategy, leading to the decision to send out election materials for direct primaries across all 360 federal constituencies.
While the Reps primary has been delayed by twenty-four hours, the party’s leadership confirmed that the timelines for other positions remain unaffected. According to a statement released by party spokesman Felix Morka, the rest of the schedule holds firm, with the Senate primaries set for Monday, May 18, and the State House of Assembly votes following on Wednesday, May 20. The governorship and presidential primaries are still locked in for Thursday, May 21, and Saturday, May 23, respectively.
This scheduling shake-up is the direct result of a growing rebellion within the ruling party. Grassroots members and various aspirants across the country flatly rejected what they viewed as an attempt by party top brass to handpick candidates under the guise of consensus. Although leadership originally favored consensus to prevent bitter internal divisions, the sheer volume of protests made that plan impossible to sustain.
The turning point came when the party’s organizing department began distributing official election materials and result sheets to the states. Insiders at Zoyols News report that this move was a clear signal that direct elections would take place wherever stakeholders failed to reach a unanimous agreement. A high-ranking party official confided to Reports that reports flooding into the national headquarters showed members overwhelmingly preferred to test their popularity at the polls rather than step down for handpicked choices. Consequently, the leadership gave the green light for everyone to battle it out on the field.
The friction was particularly visible in Oyo State, where loyalists of former Minister of Power Adebayo Adelabu took to the streets, storming the party’s secretariat in Ibadan. They were protesting the alleged endorsement of Senator Sharafadeen Alli as the consensus governorship candidate, arguing that such backroom deals deny qualified aspirants a level playing field and demanding a transparent, direct primary instead.
A similar standoff played out in Ondo State, specifically within the Ile-Oluji/Oke-Igbo and Odigbo Federal Constituency. Rumors that Mathew Oyerinmade was being handed the House of Representatives ticket as a consolation prize after missing out on a Senate slot sparked immediate anger, with rivals rejecting the arrangement.
The pushback was just as intense across the northern states. Former Communications Minister Prof. Isa Pantami openly declared his opposition to consensus deals in Gombe State. Meanwhile, former Inspectors-General of Police Abubakar Mohammed Adamu and Usman Alkali Baba, who are running in Nasarawa and Yobe states, alongside Mathias Byuan in Benue, have all thrown their weight behind the demand for a completely open and competitive voting process.
