Reported by: Oahimire Omone Precious | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
Scores of aggrieved All Progressives Congress (APC) stakeholders from Kogi Central Senatorial District converged on the party's national secretariat in Abuja on Tuesday, May 19, 2026, to demand the outright cancellation of the senatorial primary election won by former Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello, in a protest that laid bare deep internal resentment over alleged manipulation, vote‑buying, and Bello's failure to appear before the mandatory screening committee. The demonstrators, who said they came from all five local government areas that constitute Kogi Central – Adavi, Ajaokuta, Ogori/Magongo, Okehi and Okene – carried placards and chanted songs of rejection as they called on the APC National Working Committee (NWC) to conduct a fresh, transparent primary or risk losing the district to the opposition. The protest came barely 24 hours after Bello was declared the winner of the Monday, May 18, 2026, primary, a result the protesters insist was pre‑determined and designed to reward a man surrounded by corruption allegations and unresolved questions over his tenure as governor.
Bello's victory at the primary was nothing short of a landslide in numerical terms. The Returning Officer, Dr. Sadiq Mohammed, announced that the former governor polled a total of 72,399 votes, defeating his two rivals, Ibrahim Yakubu Adoke who scored 319 votes, and Momoh Yusuf Obaro who managed just 188 votes. A breakdown of the results showed Bello securing 18,341 votes in Adavi, 10,298 in Ajaokuta, 5,146 in Ogori/Magongo, 8,943 in Okehi, and a commanding 29,621 votes in his stronghold of Okene. On paper, it was an unassailable mandate. But to the protesters who picketed the party's national secretariat, those figures are a fiction manufactured by a small clique of loyalists who allegedly ran a parallel primary while shutting out the majority of party members.
Addressing journalists at the protest, the coordinator of the Kogi Central Movement, Comrade Usman Musa Adabara, alleged that the exercise was flawed from the very beginning, pointing to Bello's conspicuous absence from the APC screening committee earlier in the week. "We are here to strongly express our opposition to the senatorial ambition of former Governor Yahaya Bello and to call on the APC leadership not to consider him for the Kogi Central Senatorial ticket," Adabara said. "The protest before the public today is a call for conscience, accountability and responsible leadership." He argued that Bello deliberately avoided the screening because he would have faced uncomfortable questions about the multiple corruption cases the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has pending against him. "Every aspirant is expected to face the process openly and honestly. Avoiding such scrutiny damages public trust and creates the impression that some individuals believe they are above party rules and above accountability," Adabara added.
Another protest spokesperson, Suleiman Otaru, appealed directly to the APC National Working Committee to reverse the outcome in order to protect the party's credibility in the district. "Our message is simple and clear. The APC must not reward controversy, avoidable suspicion, and failed leadership with another public office," Otaru stated. The protesters further accused Bello of organising a parallel primary that involved only his loyalists, with the alleged backing of certain officials at the party's national secretariat. They claimed that the former governor travelled to Lagos State at the time the screening was taking place, returning only after the exercise had been concluded, a move they interpreted as a calculated attempt to bypass scrutiny.
The anger among the protesters was not merely about process; it was also about Bello's record as a two‑term governor of Kogi State, a tenure that has been shadowed by allegations of massive financial mismanagement. The EFCC is currently prosecuting Bello before a Federal Capital Territory High Court in Abuja over an alleged ₦80.2 billion money laundering charge. The anti‑graft agency has accused him of conspiring with other officials to divert public funds while he was governor, and the case is still ongoing. For many of the protesters, the idea that a man who is facing such weighty criminal allegations could be handed the party's senatorial ticket without even showing up for screening is an insult to the principles of internal democracy and accountability.
One of the defeated aspirants, Momoh Yusuf Obaro, has already taken his grievance to the Kogi Central Primary Election Appeal Committee. In a formal petition, Obaro alleged widespread irregularities, violence, intimidation, and manipulation of results. He claimed that the election committee isolated itself inside the Kogi Government House, denying access to all legitimate aspirants while opening its doors exclusively to their preferred hand‑picked candidates. Obaro also alleged the absence of officials from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Nigeria Police Force during the primary, and accused armed vigilante groups of acting as partisan enforcers for preferred candidates. According to the petition, Obaro's polling agents were subjected to severe harassment and targeted physical assaults, and they were prevented from accessing several polling units across the five local government areas.
In the face of the protest and the pending appeal, the APC national leadership has not yet issued an official response. The party's National Working Committee is believed to be reviewing the petitions submitted by the aggrieved aspirants, but no timeline for a decision has been announced. Meanwhile, Bello, who has consistently maintained his innocence in the EFCC case, has called for unity and urged his opponents to accept the result in good faith. Speaking after his declaration as winner, the former governor thanked his supporters and appealed to the other aspirants to work together for the success of the party in the 2027 general elections.
However, for the men and women who stood for hours outside the APC national secretariat on Tuesday, the call for unity rings hollow. They insisted that only a fresh primary conducted in line with the party's constitution and democratic principles would be acceptable. The protest has added a new layer of uncertainty to the APC's preparations for the 2027 general elections in Kogi Central, a district that has become a political battleground following the defection of the incumbent senator, Natasha Akpoti‑Uduaghan, to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). With the PDP already preparing to capitalise on any APC division, the pressure on the party's leadership to resolve the crisis quickly and credibly has never been greater.
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