“We are not reviewing the results of the primaries. The timeline for primaries and appeals has already elapsed. We are waiting for the code to upload the results of the winners of the primaries.

Everything has been concluded. We don’t know anything about the review they are talking about,” the principal official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Sunday PUNCH on Friday.

INEC has fixed June 26 for the release of access codes to its nomination portal and July 11 as the deadline for the submission of candidates’ particulars for the 2027 general elections.

Appeals didn’t make any significant change’

No fewer than 54 serving federal lawmakers, including ranking senators and members of the House of Representatives, failed to secure re-election tickets during the APC primaries held between May 16 and 18.

Many of the aggrieved aspirants, particularly those who lost out in Lagos, Delta, Zamfara, Kogi, Rivers, Plateau and Osun states, have lodged petitions, threatened legal action and demanded fresh primaries.

When asked about reports of the primary election appeal panels set up by the party to address issues raised by aggrieved aspirants across the country, the party chieftain said, “From what I have seen, the appeal reports didn’t make any significant changes to the primary results because a lot of the petitions were found to be frivolous.

“But any appeal that was well made would have been considered. Some of the appeals are talking about zoning issues, which are pre-primary matters.

Some are talking about clearance, that somebody did not properly resign from the PDP before joining the APC. Is that a basis to challenge our primaries? Those are examples of frivolous issues people raised in their petitions.

“There are 109 senatorial districts and 360 House of Representatives constituencies, with thousands of House of Assembly seats. I can tell you that there is no appeal in the majority of these constituencies. So, where is the primary review report coming from? The results to be announced may not be different from what has already been known.

The petitions against Okowa and Chinda

Findings by Sunday PUNCH revealed that the senator representing Delta North Senatorial District, Ned Nwoko, is challenging the outcome of the APC primary in which he lost to the former governor of the state, Ifeanyi Okowa.

Nwoko, according to a party insider privy to the petition, is challenging Okowa’s victory on the grounds that the former governor did not resign from the Peoples Democratic Party before joining the APC.

Okowa joined the APC on April 23 alongside the Delta State Governor, Sheriff Oborevwori.

Similarly, some aggrieved APC aspirants in Rivers State have reportedly challenged the emergence of Kingsley Chinda as the governorship candidate of the party.

Chinda, at the time he participated in the primary, was the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives representing Obio/Akpor Federal Constituency.

Apparently referring to the petition against Chinda, the APC official said, “Even in the Rivers case, the fact that a particular aspirant’s membership of the party is evidenced by his name on the register is sufficient, regardless of whether he is a minority leader or not.”

As far as the register of the APC is concerned, he’s a registered member of our party and he doesn’t need to announce the day he registered his membership after leaving the PDP. When Bukola Saraki resigned from the APC to rejoin the PDP, did he resign as Senate President? In any event, the issue of who is a member of a party is an internal matter. It is the party that will determine who its members are.”

Tinubu has yet to intervene – NWC member

This came as the other NWC member refuted claims that President Bola Tinubu had intervened in the crisis rocking the party after the primaries, describing the report as false.

He stated that the President’s intervention would have come before the conduct of the primaries to protect “his interest,” maintaining that neither Tinubu nor anybody from the Presidency had spoken with any of the party’s national officials on the need to review the outcome of the primaries.

Speaking about the controversies surrounding the party’s primaries in Lagos State, the APC official told Sunday PUNCH that all the individuals who emerged as candidates during the primaries had been confirmed and were ready to be uploaded to the INEC website as winners.

“Anybody who emerged in the Lagos primaries has emerged. Was the President not aware of any issue before their emergence? Lagos results are intact. Nothing has changed, and nothing will be changed.

Generally, we are not considering any review of the primary results. Maybe less than two per cent of the petitions filed by aggrieved aspirants succeeded. So, there is no change to the results with us,” he said.

When contacted by Sunday PUNCH, the National Secretary of the APC, Ajibola Basiru, declined to comment on the matter.

“This is an internal affair of our party; I can’t discuss that on the pages of a newspaper,” he said.

Similarly, the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Felix Morka, neither answered calls nor replied to messages sent to him.

‘Powers that be’ preventing Tinubu from knowing the truth – Lagos aspirant

However, some of the aggrieved aspirants who spoke with Sunday PUNCH expressed optimism that Tinubu would intervene in the matter before the uploading of the primary results.

One of the aspirants, who spoke on condition of anonymity on Friday, blamed caucus politics for the outcome of the primaries.

“These issues did not just come up today, but for Lagos, naturally, Mr President will be interested. The powers that be are trying to ambush the President. It is a game of power and they are trying to prevent the President from getting the real picture of the situation.

“The way I know Mr President operates, even before he became President, he would listen to all sides and, on his own, investigate what happened and even go further to find out who the popular aspirant in that constituency is. For that, I am rest assured that the President will do the right thing.”

Another aspirant in the state warned the APC against proceeding with the results of the primaries, saying it could have a negative effect on the 2027 elections.

He said the APC should try as much as possible to be fair to the President by settling the crisis and allowing him to concentrate on governance.

“There were massive protests during the week at the party secretariat over the outcome of the primaries. All these are front-burner issues for Mr President now. There should not be a rift in the ruling party with all the economic and security issues that we are battling. If anybody should give Mr President peace now, it should be the APC.

“Some people will walk away from the party before the election, but the danger remains those who will stay within the party and work for the opposition. There are those who might just be indifferent on election day, and it takes the indifference of one member for the other party to wreak havoc on the day of the election,” the aspirant said.