By: Ehichioya Ezomon
Two hidden facts emerged from the Wednesday, June 10, 2026, explanation by the spokesman of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Osa Director, on why the political parties, weeks after the legislative primaries held in May 2026, didn’t publish the lists of candidates that scaled the ballots: Those who won have been notified; and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) leads in no-disclosure of the winners.
On whether the NDC would publish the names of its successful candidates, Mr Director said: “It is not compulsory for you to publish a list of candidates. What the (1999) Constitution (of Nigeria) expects you to do by the guidelines of the Electoral Act (2026) is to send your list to INEC (Independent National Electoral Commission). And we have done so.
“Those who were victorious were also contacted and given nomination forms to fill. That’s all. Did you see the APC publish the names of their candidates in any major newspaper? The key thing is to send it to INEC, and candidates will be contacted, which we are already doing,” The Punch reported on June 10, 2026.
The NDC national leader and former Bayelsa Governor, Sen. Seriake Dickson (NDC, Bayelsa West), seems to align himself with the position of the party spokesman, dismissing reports on social media that winners had emerged from the party primaries.
In a post on his X handle on Thursday, June 11, 2026, Dickson said: “No party has announced any set of winners from its primaries, and neither has the NDC. The public should disregard any such claims in circulation, especially on social media, and await the party’s formal submissions through the appropriate channels.”
Similarly earlier in the past week, Senate President Godswill Akpabio, at the inauguration of the APC National Campaign Council for the Ekiti State Governorship Election holding on Saturday, June 20, 2026, said senators were “getting hypertensive” over the delayed release of the official results of the APC primary.
Appealing to the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party to “carry the National Assembly lawmakers along” in the final list to be submitted to INEC, Akpabio said: “Some of my people (Senators) are having hypertension. So, they are really coming down with hypertension. I am pleading, with the party, that when they bring out their final list, they need to show that they are carrying all of us along.”
As of Saturday, June 13, 2026, the APC – and the other 21 parties angling for control of power across Nigeria – still hoarded the list of candidates that’ll fly its flags at the National and State Houses of Assembly elections on January 16 and February 6, 2027, accordingly.
There’s a list in circulation that the APC disclaims, but which may not materially be different from the party’s list, when finally released, because the results were declared in the states during the direct primaries conducted from May 16 to May 21, 2026.
From the purported candidates’ list, out of the 36 States and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, only Bauchi, Nasarawa, Oyo and Taraba have one outstanding senatorial slot each to fill – the reason being that the districts “are either pending, inconclusive, or yet to conduct APC primaries due to internal disputes, zoning disagreements, logistical challenges, and postponements,” the Radarr News reports.
While the “denied” list is somehow a welcome relief to many of the “successful” APC candidates, who weren’t/aren’t sure of their positions due to reported intrigues at the party national headquarters; for the “defeated” aspirants, allegedly schemed out of the primaries, tension and anxiety continue, as their hopes for elective positions may’ve been dashed in the APC that’s faced defections since the primaries.
The party has lost to the opposition parties many national and state assembly members, who “failed” the primaries. It’s almost a daily cross-carpeting at the plenaries of the Senate and House of Representatives in the National Assembly (NASS) in Abuja.
The opposition African Democratic Congress (ADC), itself also imploding, had predicted an “exodus” of aggrieved aspirants from the APC over alleged manipulation of its primaries. True to that prediction, the defections began even as voting, under “Option A4” system of voters queuing behind the posters of their preferred aspirants, was ongoing – indicative of the scale and extent of the alleged rigging by party vested interests.
In the states, pressure mounts among the primary losers to remain in the APC as “loyal members” and work for the successful candidates, or as “disloyal members” waiting to sabotage the party from within; or decamp to opposition parties that can grant them waivers and automatic tickets via substitution of candidates.
In Edo State, the alleged APC “list” of senatorial candidates confirms the three names bandied as “anointed” or “imposed” prior to the May 18, 2026, primary, viz: Sen. Adams Oshiomhole (APC, Edo North), Sen. Joseph Ikpea (APC, Edo Central), and Hon. Omoregie Ogbeide-Ihama (APC, Edo South).
The fiercest agitation over the primary comes from supporters of two-time governorship candidate, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, who accused Governor Monday Okpebholo and the state APC chapter of “imposition,” on Edo South, of Ogbeide-Ihama, who defected from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) based on alleged agreement by Okpebholo and the APC to “compensate” the external forces” that reportedly helped Okpebholo to the governorship in 2024.
The “external influence” includes President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as leader of the APC, and former Rivers Governor and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, Chief Nyesom Wike, who backs the legacy group of the Edo PDP chapter, which Ogbeide-Ihama had belonged, led by its former state chairman, Chief Dan Orbih.
There’s initially a running battle between Ize-Iyamu, and two-term Rep. Ogbeide-Ihama over the primary winner, with Ize-Iyamu claiming 33,399 votes, and Ogbeide-Ihama 27,154 votes, until the third aspirant, Sen. Imasuen, claimed the highest figure of 33,700 votes.
Ironically in the APC Edo South senatorial run, those rooting for Ize-Iyamu for 2027 took him as an “outcast” in the 2020 governorship election because he reportedly received support from then-APC National Leader, Asiwaju Tinubu, against the PDP Governor Godwin Obaseki’s second-term bid.
Tinubu’s declaration, and rallying of APC’s support for Ize-Iyamu, stoked anger and revenge in Edo South people, who constitute about 55% of the voting strength of Edo State. They labeled it “external attempt” to thwart the re-election of Obaseki, who defeated Ize-Iyamu in 2016.
Overlooking the “support” that Wike also offered Obaseki for his re-election, the Edo South people rallied under a campaign slogan, “Edo no be Lagos” (Edo is not Lagos) – a reference to Tinubu’s hold on Lagos politics – to work for Ize-Iyamu’s defeat by Obaseki; and also Tinubu’s defeat by ex-Anambra Governor and candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr Peter Obi, in Edo State in 2023.
Fast-forward to the build-up to the 2027 poll, and Edo South people have seen another opportunity to oppose Tinubu, Oshiomhole, Okpebholo, and Edo South’s 2020 “ally,” Wike, now backing Tinubu’s re-election. They vow to “punish” Tinubu and Okpebholo in their re-election bids in January 2027 and September 2028, respectively, should the APC fail to field Ize-Iyamu for Senate.
The Edo South polity is further polarised by alleged statements by the APC state chairman, Emperor Jarret Tenebe: that the party “won’t give the Senate ticket to a serial (election) loser” – a coded reference to Ize-Iyamu, who lost the governorship in 2016 under the PDP to Obaseki of the APC; and in 2020 on the platform of the APC to Obaseki of the PDP.
Tenebe’s remarks seem to suggest the APC leaders’ inclination to subvert the will of the primary voters in Edo South, and hand over the Senate ticket to Ogbeide-Ihama – if he can deliver for the party – regardless of whether he won or lost the primary.
With that mindset, hasn’t Pastor Ize-Iyamu lost the Senate seat, going by the “list” of senatorial candidates in circulation, and the fact that leaders of Edo APC have visited the Oba of Benin, Omo N’Oba N’Edo, Ukuakpolokpolo, Oba Ewuare II, to present Ogbeide-Ihama as the “APC candidate for Edo South,” and seek Royal blessings for him? Abuja Times News reported on May 23, 2026.
Speaking for the delegation, led by Edo Deputy Governor Dennis Idahosa, former Deputy Governor Pius Odubu explained that the visit was to formally acquaint the Oba with the outcome of the primary and seek his fatherly blessings for Ogbeide-Ihama, whom he said scored the highest votes at the primary, and was issued a “result sheet” by the electoral officer, Mohammed Ajana.
As he presented the said “result sheet” to the Omo N’Oba, Hon. Ogbeide-Ihama stressed that the primary was conducted “in line with the constitution, guidelines and procedures of the APC,” and that party members “freely exercised their franchise” during the voting, adding: “What we await now is the same process being awaited by aspirants across the 109 senatorial districts of the country, which is usually concluded at the National Headquarters of the party.”
If that wait comes in the APC disclaimed “list of senatorial candidates” in circulation, which confirms Omoregie Ogbeide-Ihama as the candidate for Edo South in the January 16, 2027, National Assembly election, then Pastor Ize-Iyamu is left to rue his failed ambition!
In such an eventuality, what’s next for Ize-Iyamu in the the General Election? Will he defect or remain in the APC as a loyal member, or a spoiler biding his time to strike back at the party in 2027? The verdict will be in, in seven months from today, Monday, June 15, 2026!
• Mr Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria. Can be reached on X, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp @EhichioyaEzomon. Tel: 08033078357_ .
