The North-Central All Progressives Congress Forum has issued a two-week ultimatum to the National Chairman of the party, Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, demanding his resignation over alleged irregularities and monetisation of the recently concluded party primaries.
The group accused the Yilwatda-led National Working Committee of mishandling the conduct of the State Assembly, National Assembly, governorship and presidential primaries, resulting in widespread controversies across the country.
In a statement released on Friday by the forum’s National Chairman, Alhaji Saleh Zazzaga, the group alleged that results of several primary elections were manipulated in favour of preferred aspirants.
The forum claimed that some aspirants who were initially projected to emerge victorious were either screened out or had their results altered to favour candidates allegedly backed by party officials.
According to the statement, the forum had earlier raised concerns over what it described as the commercialisation of the primary election process and dissatisfaction among party members over the conduct of the exercise.
The group maintained that the APC national leadership should be held accountable for allegedly violating party guidelines and undermining internal democracy.
“We are issuing a two-week ultimatum to the national chairman to resign because of incompetence, violation of the party’s constitution, monetisation of the just concluded primaries and manipulation of results,” the statement partly read.
The forum also threatened legal action against Yilwatda should he fail to resign before June 12, 2026, which coincides with Nigeria’s Democracy Day celebration.
The group further questioned the credibility of the APC presidential primary results announced by the party’s Presidential Primary Election Committee.
The committee chairman and former Senate President, Pius Anyim, had declared President Bola Tinubu winner of the presidential primary with 10,999,162 votes, while his challenger, Stanley Osifo, polled 16,503 votes.
However, the forum argued that the figures announced exceeded the official number of registered party members nationwide.
“The party reportedly has about eight million registered members, yet over 10 million votes were announced during the presidential primary. This raises serious concerns about the integrity of the process,” the statement added.
The group alleged that the controversies surrounding the primaries had weakened the party and triggered defections of key members to opposition parties.
It cited the resignation of former Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege, from the APC after losing the Delta Central senatorial primary, noting that he had since joined the Nigeria Democratic Congress.
The forum also referenced the exit of Mustapha Bala Dawaki, a former Chief of Staff to the APC national chairman, who reportedly dumped the ruling party after losing his constituency ticket in Kano State.
The group accused the party leadership of deploying inexperienced officials to oversee the primaries, a development it said contributed to the crisis currently rocking the party.
It vowed to pursue legal action and present evidence of alleged monetisation and manipulation of the primaries if the APC national chairman refuses to step down within the stipulated period.
