A governorship hopeful in Benue State’s All Progressives Congress (APC) on Thursday urged the party’s national leadership to annul 21st May 2026 primary, alleging that Governor Hyacinth Alia and his officials manipulated results to favour the incumbent.
Dr. Jeffery Kuraun, who is challenging Alia for the APC ticket, said the May 21 ward-level contests across Benue’s 276 council wards were riddled with irregularities and lacked basic transparency.
Speaking at a news conference in Abuja, Kuraun demanded that the party either order a fresh, independently supervised primary or recognize him as the rightful winner.
“I respectfully call on the National Working Committee of our great party, the APC, to either cancel the proposed governorship primary election conducted in Benue State on the 21st of May 2026, and conduct a fresh, transparent, and independently supervised primary election, or declare me Dr. Jeffrey Kuraun the valid winner of the primary election based on the undisputed fact that I was the only aspirant who substantially complied with the party’s stipulated preparatory requirements for the conduct of the exercise, including the duly acknowledged submission and deployment of agents across the 276 council wars and 23 local government areas.
He declared that Benue State deserves credible leadership recruitment processes, not manufactured outcomes.
Kuraun challenged anyone claiming victory in the exercise to publicly provide authentic video or pictorial evidence showing actual accreditation, voting, counting, and collation processes across the 276 Council wards of the State.
“My agents and supporters across the 23 Local Government Areas patiently waited at their respective ward centres for the arrival of election materials, which reportedly departed Makurdi at about 1:00 p.m. for onward distribution to the designated wards.
“However, in many instances, these materials never arrived at the approved ward centres for the conduct of the primary election. Instead, reports and evidence later showed that the materials were seen being taken away or found in the possession of certain government appointees and individuals outside the designated electoral process,” he added.
Kuraun told reporters that he has since filed a formal petition at the office of the national chairman of the APC in Abuja, hoping that the irregularities and his complained will be addressed.
“I trust that the evidence of our petition will be considered and the party will announce me as winner of the primary election.”
He said notwithstanding the outcome of the petition, he will remain in the APC to support the good works that President Bola Tinubu is doing to improve the lives of millions of Nigerians.
