APC Begins Uploading Candidates On INEC Portal

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has started uploading the names of its governorship and State Houses of Assembly candidates to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Candidate Nomination Portal (ICNP) as preparations continue for the 2027 general elections.

The party is giving priority to 16 serving governors seeking re-election before completing the upload of other governorship and state assembly candidates.

The governors expected to receive priority include Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom, Hyacinth Alia of Benue, Uba Sani of Kaduna, Abba Yusuf of Kano, Dikko Radda of Katsina, Nasir Idris of Kebbi, Umaru Bago of Niger, Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau, Ahmad Aliyu of Sokoto, Agbu Kefas of Taraba and Dauda Lawal of Zamfara.

The APC is also preparing to upload the details of 12 governorship candidates contesting for the office for the first time. They include Obafemi Hamzat in Lagos, Solomon Adeola in Ogun, Ogundu Kingsley Chinda in Rivers, Eric Opah in Abia, Mohammed Abubakar in Bauchi, Mustapha Gubio in Borno, Jamilu Gwamna in Gombe, Ahmed Aliyu Wadada in Nasarawa and Baba Malam Wali in Yobe.

The exercise is part of the party’s efforts to meet the legal deadline set by INEC for the submission of candidates ahead of the elections.

Findings at the APC National Headquarters in Abuja showed that the party’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) department began processing the nomination documents on Saturday.

The ongoing exercise involves the upload of details for 28 governorship candidates and 993 State Houses of Assembly candidates across the country.

Governorship elections will not take place in Anambra, Bayelsa, Edo, Ekiti, Imo, Kogi, Ondo and Osun because those states operate off-cycle election schedules. The party had earlier completed the upload of its presidential candidate and 469 National Assembly candidates.

To ensure the process is completed without errors, the APC has set up a committee to verify all nomination documents before they are uploaded to the INEC portal.

The committee is headed by Jibrin Bancir, the Principal Private Secretary to the APC National Chairman. It is responsible for collecting nomination forms from state chairmen, verifying the documents and forwarding them to the ICT department for upload before the deadline.

The move follows the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2026, which requires political parties to submit the names of their candidates together with all necessary affidavits and statutory documents within the period approved by INEC.

Unlike previous elections, the current legal framework does not allow manual submission or late replacement of candidates after the online portal closes, making compliance with the deadline mandatory.

INEC opened the Candidate Nomination Portal at 9:00 a.m. on July 18 and is expected to close it automatically at 6:00 p.m. on August 8, 2026, for the submission of governorship and State Houses of Assembly candidates.

Despite the ongoing uploads, the APC is still reviewing the final list of State Assembly candidates, as some names may be replaced following decisions reached by the party’s Primary Elections Appeal Committee.

The committee reviewed several petitions arising from the party’s primary elections and overturned the outcome of some contests, creating room for adjustments to the list before the deadline.

APC National Publicity Secretary Felix Morka had earlier disclosed that the party received more than 700 petitions after the primary elections held in May. He said the reports of the appeal committee were being carefully reviewed and that some candidates could be replaced to address grievances and maintain unity within the party.

With the August 8 deadline drawing closer, the APC ICT department is reportedly operating in shifts to ensure that all verified candidate information is successfully uploaded to the INEC portal before the submission window closes.