- moves to reconcile substituted aspirants
The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has defended its substitution of the 2027 election candidates’ list following the recommendations of the primary election appeals committee.
It confirmed that it replaced at least 26 candidates to correct irregularities and urged aggrieved members in states like Ondo, Benue, Kwara, Kogi to shelve litigation and unite for President Bola Tinubu’s re-election.
In an interview with BBC on Tuesday, the party’s Director of Publicity, Bala Ibrahim said that certificates of return had been issued to the successful candidates, and their names had been forwarded to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for publication.
He explained that the APC resorted to the replacement of many candidates after the party primaries to address various identified shortcomings, stressing that replacing the names of candidates was not unusual.
His words, “There is nothing new about changing the name of a candidate. If it is discovered that something was not done properly, justice demands that it should be corrected.”
He added that the party had constituted a reconciliation committee to engage aspirants whose names were replaced.
According to I Rahim, “We have set up a reconciliation committee that will meet with the affected aspirants to calm them and make them understand that democracy is not a system where everyone gets exactly what they want.
“We expect that anyone who is unhappy with the outcome will continue to contribute to the party. If we succeed, there may be an opportunity in the future to recognize their contribution, perhaps in a role that could have an even greater impact than the one they originally sought.”
Some substituted aspirants had expressed dissatisfaction over what they described as unfair treatment by the party leadership, despite being loyal members who had served the party for many years.
In Ondo State, some of the affected aspirants had protested against the list, while others threatened to defect to other political parties over the replacement of their names.
