The All Progressives Congress has commenced the process of uploading the details of 28 governorship and 993 State Houses of Assembly candidates into the Independent National Electoral Commission's Candidate Nomination Portal. In this initial phase, the ruling party is prioritizing 16 sitting governors who are seeking a second term in office.
The list of incumbent governors being processed includes Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom, Hyacinth Alia of Benue, Uba Sani of Kaduna, Abba Yusuf of Kano, Dikko Radda of Katsina, Nasir Idris of Kebbi, Umaru Bago of Niger, Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau, Ahmad Aliyu of Sokoto, Agbu Kefas of Taraba, and Dauda Lawal of Zamfara. Alongside the incumbents, the party is also uploading data for 12 fresh, first-time governorship candidates, including Obafemi Hamzat of Lagos, Solomon Adeola from Ogun, Ogundu Kingsley Chinda of Rivers, Eric Opah of Abia, Mohammed Abubakar from Bauchi, Mustapha Gubio of Borno, Jamilu Gwamna from Gombe, Ahmed Aliyu Wadada of Nasarawa, and Baba Malam Wali of Yobe.
The processing and verification of candidate documents began on Saturday at the APC National Headquarters in Abuja under the supervision of the party's Information and Communications Technology department. To ensure data integrity, a special vetting committee led by Jibrin Bancir, the Principal Private Secretary to the APC National Chairman, has been tasked with collecting, reviewing, and verifying all nomination forms from state chairmen before they are cleared for the ICT unit.
A party source revealed that the leadership is taking no chances as it races against the August 8 deadline for the closure of the portal, which was opened by the electoral body on July 18 and is programmed to shut down automatically.
Meanwhile, governorship elections will not take place in Anambra, Bayelsa, Edo, Ekiti, Imo, Kogi, Ondo, and Osun states due to their off-cycle electoral schedules. The APC has already completed and submitted the nomination details for its presidential and National Assembly candidates ahead of the upcoming general elections.
