APC tells INEC to keep to 2027 timetable as ECOWAS team visits

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to stick to its published timetable for the 2027 general elections, saying the same rules should apply to every party.

APC national chairman Prof Nentawe Yilwatda made the call in Abuja on Sunday while receiving a pre-election fact-finding team from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) at the party's national secretariat.

According to a statement from his media adviser, Abimbola Tooki, Yilwatda said the process must be fair, transparent and predictable, and warned against shifting deadlines in a way that gives any party an undue advantage.

The ECOWAS team was led by Victor Bockarie Foh, a former vice-president of Sierra Leone. Foh said the mission's monitoring is scientific and that it verifies information before making any pronouncement.

Party says it is ahead on preparations

Yilwatda said the APC has already released and inaugurated its campaign council, started campaign activities and uploaded its candidates to INEC's portal. He said the party has fielded candidates for every position it is contesting, unlike some opposition parties he said had struggled to complete their submissions.

He put the party's registered membership at about 13 million across all local government areas, with membership cards designed to be checked against National Identification Numbers (NIN) and voter details. He also said the party has more than 261,000 executive members from ward to national level.

On elected offices, he said the APC has 31 of the 36 governors, 88 of the 109 senators and 208 of the 360 members of the House of Representatives.

He said more than 7,000 aspirants contested APC tickets in its primaries, and that the party recorded relatively few court cases afterwards compared with the scale of the contests. Some politicians who lost out later picked tickets from other parties, he said.

Yilwatda insisted that size would not be used against rivals. "Being the largest political party does not mean that we want to suppress anybody," he said, adding that all parties should get equal access to the media and campaign venues.

He cited public protests, including the "Tinubu Must Go" demonstrations, as evidence that people can express views without arrest or intimidation. He also said the party engaged stakeholders after losing the Anambra and Osun governorship elections, and that the talks helped build wider alliances behind President Bola Tinubu's re-election bid.

What happens next

The ECOWAS mission is assessing the political environment ahead of the 2027 polls. INEC has not responded publicly to the APC's call, and the sources did not say whether any deadline has been proposed for change.