JOS, NIGERIA – The ongoing All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary election in Plateau State has been hit by a wave of controversy. Chief Yilchini Jan Bida, a prominent frontline aspirant vying for the party’s gubernatorial ticket, has raised a high-stakes alarm over widespread and systemic electoral irregularities allegedly compromising the integrity of the exercise, with a particular focus on the developments in Kanke Local Government Area.
In an official, hard-hitting press statement issued on Friday, May 22, 2026, Chief Bida sent a strong warning to party managers and state actors. He criticized what he perceived as a coordinated deployment of state apparatus and institutional machinery to undermine, subvert, and compromise Nigeria’s fragile democratic process.
Refusing to hold back, the aggrieved governorship hopeful described the reported ongoing actions of illegality within the party’s internal selection process as a brazen and direct assault on democracy itself.
“I speak today not only as an aspirant in the ongoing APC Governorship Primaries, but also as a proud son of Kanke Local Government Area,” Chief Bida declared, emphasizing his deep personal and political ties to the affected locality.
According to the specific details provided by the aspirant, credible intelligence and field reports filtering in from several key sectors of the Kanke Local Government Area indicate that the fundamental protocols of a democratic election were completely abandoned. He claimed that in multiple voting centers across the area, there was an absolute absence of genuine voter accreditation or actual physical voting by registered party delegates.
Going further with his heavy accusations, Chief Bida explicitly alleged that while party members were being systematically shut out of the voting process on the ground, highly manipulated and fictitious results were already being actively prepared in secret locations for eventual official declaration by compromised electoral officers.
“If this is what some now call democracy, then we are tragically regressing into an era where the will of the people no longer matters and electoral outcomes are written long before ballots are cast,” Bida lamented.
The APC stalwart, who noted that he had personally toured numerous political wards and rural communities across the Kanke expanse during the intense preparations for the primary elections, expressed deep disappointment and bitterness over what he characterized as a calculated subversion of the people’s sovereign mandate.
He explained that thousands of loyal party faithful had turned out early at their respective polling units, waiting patiently under the sun with the firm belief that their voices would be heard and their votes would count toward choosing the party's next flagbearer. To now completely replace their genuine enthusiasm and voices with fabricated figures is not only deeply fraudulent, Bida added, but also constitutes a profoundly insulting blow to the basic dignity and intelligence of the entire good people of Kanke.
Warning against the long-term reputational damage to his home region, Chief Bida maintained that the area must never be allowed to become an established breeding ground or a soft target associated with shameless electoral manipulation and political fraud.
He further characterized the alleged institutional irregularities as authoritarianism heavily disguised in democratic clothing, stressing that any genuine democracy must thrive on mass participation, credible internal competition, and absolute respect for the sanctity of the ballot box.
As the situation threatens to boil over, Chief Bida made a passionate appeal to the national leadership of the APC in Abuja, national security agencies, and all relevant electoral authorities to immediately step in. He demanded a swift, uncompromised intervention to investigate the irregularities and protect the overall integrity of the Plateau State primary election before an illegitimate outcome is certified.
“The APC must not mortgage its moral credibility for the sake of desperate political interests,” Bida cautioned in his closing remarks. “No single individual's ambition is worth destroying the sacred democratic foundation upon which our entire society stands.”
As of the time of filing this report, the Plateau State APC primary election committee and representatives of the state government have not issued an official response to Chief Bida's weighty allegations, leaving the final outcome of the gubernatorial primary in a state of high tension and uncertainty.
