2027: APC presidential primary transparent – Yilwatda

The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, has described as transparent the collation and announcement of results of the party’s presidential primary election from all the 36 states of the federation and the FCT.

Yilwatda took this position when he spoke at the Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Conference Centre on Sunday in Abuja.

The centre served as the venue of the final collation and announcement of the results.

The former Minister commended the Senator Pius Anyim-led APC 2026 Presidential Primary Election Collation Committee.

He thanked the committee for making his job easy, adding that it did excellently well in terms of coordination, preparation, and ensuring that the exercise took place seamlessly.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that President Bola Tinubu defeated Stanley Osifo, an APC presidential aspirant, at the primary to clinch the party’s presidential ticket to re-contest his position in the 2027 presidential  election.

Tinubu polled 10.99 million votes to defeat Osifo, his only rival, who scored 16,504 votes in the presidential primaries held on May 23 in 8,809 wards and across the 36 states of the federation and the FCT, according to the results collated by the Anyim-led committee.

The APC 31 states and other top chieftains of the party, who were coordinators and collation officers in their respective states, presented the results of the direct primaries to the committee.

While Tinubu dominated all the 36 states and the FCT, winning 100 percent votes in most of states, Osifo scored 5,248 votes in Niger, 2,675 in Kano, 1,186 in Lagos, 1,007 in Abia, 929 in Oyo, 779 in Benue, and 768 in Nasarawa.

Yilwatda said: “We started with the primary election from the House of Assembly, the National Assembly, governorship, and we climaxed with the presidential primary.

“We have two aspirants to this position: the sitting President Bola Tinubu, and the second aspirant, Stanley Osifo.

“Yesterday, May 23, was the primary election. 

“It was conducted nationwide; accreditation took place in all the wards across the country.

“We also ensured that there was collation at local government level, which was done yesterday (Saturday), most states did their collation also yesterday at the state level; some did it today.”

Yilwatda added that the exercise was broadcast live on selected television stations to show transparency, saying that the party was deepening its internal democracy.

“We decided to make this programme live on five television stations; it is online, and I am happy that the two people representing the two aspirants are here,” he said.

The APC national chairman said challenges that came up during the exercise were addressed, showing that the party was open when challenges arose and mistakes were made.

He said: “Corrections were done based on the suggestion of the two representatives of the two aspirants.

“And I am happy that this collation has gone smoothly with mutual respect from the two aspirants, and also the respect that every aspirant in the party has given to the party.”

Yilwatda thanked the governors who were returning officers of their states, saying the collation had been tidied and that other persons were also selected as state returning officers.

He said: “Thank you so very much for the great job you have done, a sacrifice to the nation and to the party at no cost to it. 

“May God bless your efforts and what you have done for this party.”

Yilwatda also thanked the party’s supporters and members at all levels for supporting it right from the primary elections at different levels.