At the end of the All Progressives Congress (APC) House of Representatives primaries in Kaduna State in May this year, Samaila Abdu Suleiman was declared the winner for Kaduna North Federal Constituency.
According to Yakubu Hosseini, Chairman of the House of Representatives Primary Election Committee, who announced the results at the APC State Secretariat in Kaduna, Samaila won the APC ticket with 3,049 votes. He defeated Abdulazeez Abubakar Kaka and Abubakar Mahmoud, also known as Jarman Abakwa, who polled 65 and 96 votes respectively.
Kaka was part of the Coalition of Kaduna Senatorial and House of Representatives Frontline Aspirants, which rejected the primary that produced Samaila Suleiman.
Many political analysts say it was clear that Governor Uba Sani supported Samaila Suleiman’s emergence. A key pointer to this, they argue, was Governor Uba Sani’s presentation of the Certificate of Return for the Kaduna North Federal Constituency to Samaila.
However, in the final list of candidates reportedly submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and signed by APC National Chairman Prof. Nentawe Goshwe Yilwatda and National Secretary Ajibola Basiru, Samaila Suleiman’s name was replaced with that of Abdulazeez Kaka. The party said the substitution was based on the recommendation of its Primary Election Appeal Committee.
The change sparked heated debate among supporters of the two politicians. On social media, it was framed by some as a “victory” for Seyi Tinubu’s camp over that of Kaduna State Governor Uba Sani — with Kaka seen as the former’s candidate and Samaila as the latter’s.
Samaila Suleiman served as a member of the House of Representatives from 2015 to 2023. Abdulazeez Kaka, on the other hand, is a political newcomer with no legislative record.
Meanwhile, INEC has declared that it will reject any candidate submitted by political parties whose names do not correspond with the outcome of primaries monitored and uploaded by the Commission, raising fresh uncertainty over the APC’s revised nominations.
INEC National Commissioner Mohammed Kudu Haruna told The Punch that the electoral body had already uploaded the results of all party primaries monitored by its officials, and that its electronic nomination portal would automatically reject any attempt to substitute candidates outside those records.
Haruna said all registered political parties had collected their access codes for online submission of candidates, although only a few had begun the process.
According to him, political parties will be unable to upload names different from those in INEC’s database because the electronic portal is programmed to reject discrepancies. “If what they are submitting is different from what we uploaded — because in uploading we work hand in glove with them — if it is different, it won’t even go through,” he said.
Haruna said the electronic safeguard was introduced following disputes over candidate substitutions after the 2023 general elections, some of which ended at the Supreme Court.
The question many people are now asking is: who will be the eventual APC candidate for Kaduna North Federal Constituency in the 2027 general elections?
