Aso Rock’s handpicked delegates shut the doors on APC gubernatorial aspirants in Delta State yesterday. The party conducted what aggrieved candidates now brand an “invisible election.” No ballots were cast. No votes were counted. Yet the national secretariat insists a primary took place. Aspirants stormed out of the venue in Asaba, vowing to drag the party before the courts.
The fraud accusation is not new. APC Delta has been a war zone since the last general election. Two rival factions—one loyal to the national chairman, the other to a powerful godfather in the South-South—have traded accusations of voter suppression and delegate bribery. This primary was supposed to end the feud. Instead, it deepened the crisis. The national secretariat flew in its own returning officer, bypassing the state executive committee. Local observers were barred from the venue.
The legal fallout will hit INEC first. Aggrieved aspirants have 14 days to file petitions. If the courts nullify the primary, APC risks fielding no candidate in Delta come November. That vacuum hands PDP Governor Okowa a free pass to install his successor. The party’s internal disciplinary committee has already summoned the state chairman for “conduct capable of bringing the party into disrepute.”
This is not a Delta problem. It is a national disgrace. APC sold itself as the party of change. Today, it presides over invisible elections, rigged conventions, and aspirants who must beg the courts for justice. If the party cannot run a clean primary in one state, it has no moral authority to demand electoral reform across the country.
