The All Progressives Congress’s North Central leaders said they would mount a regionwide campaign to deliver the highest number of votes in Nigeria’s northern region to President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 presidential election.
The commitment was made at a meeting of party stakeholders, including governors, senior party officials, government appointees and other leaders, held at the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) in Abuja.
APC National Chairman Nentawe Yilwatda said the party’s six North Central states would mobilize members and supporters for a rally in Lafia, Nasarawa State, on October 10, 2026.
“We agreed that, overwhelmingly the North Central will mobilise votes and overwhelmingly support Mr. President as our candidate in the 2027 general election,” Yilwatda said.
The rally is expected to serve as the first major public demonstration of the zone’s support for Tinubu and its pledge to deliver a large vote for his re-election bid, he added.
Yilwatda said the stakeholders would establish a consultation committee to address grievances within the party and consolidate support ahead of the election.
The committee will also seek to manage disagreements over candidates nominated to contest elective positions, he said, urging party members to support whoever emerges on the APC platform.
“We must support our candidates and work for them,” Yilwatda said.
“We don’t support candidates because we like the candidate, or we believe in those candidates. But the party has presented the candidates for us, and we need to support the party”, he added.
The APC chairman also said, the stakeholders would reconvene the following week to intensify preparations for the Lafia rally and coordinate the wider mobilization programme.
The meeting followed a presentation by Secretary to the Government of the Federation George Akume, who is also grand patron of the North Central Grassroots Mobilization Network.
Akume outlined a three-part programme aimed at mobilizing support for the re-election of President Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima.
The programme includes the North Central Grand Rally in Lafia on October 10, medical outreaches across the three senatorial districts of Benue State, and a grassroots advocacy tour and town-hall meetings in the 19 senatorial districts covering the six North Central states and the Federal Capital Territory.
The medical programme will provide eye screening and treatment, refraction services and prescription spectacles, cataract assessments, selected cataract surgeries, glaucoma screening and diabetic-eye screening.
The SGF said the programme was developed by National Coordinator Sonny Echono, his team and other stakeholders, and had received the endorsement of the APC national secretariat.
The organisers said their objective was to make the North Central geopolitical zone the leading source of votes for Tinubu in northern Nigeria in the January 2027 presidential election.
