INEC final list confirms Yahaya Bello as APC candidate for Kogi Central

By Omeiza Ajayi

The Independent National Electoral Commission INEC has released its final list of candidates for the Kogi Central, Kogi East and Kogi West senatorial districts ahead of the January 2027 presidential and National Assembly elections, confirming former Governor Yahaya Bello as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress APC for the Kogi Central seat.

The list, containing a total of 42 candidates across the three senatorial districts, was signed by the Secretary of INEC, Rose Oriaran-Anthony, and captures the names, parties, ages, gender and qualifications of all cleared aspirants.

Bello, 51, is listed alongside ten other contenders for the Kogi Central seat, including Suzan Jagbadi of the Accord (A), Muhammad Jatto of the African Action Congress (AA), Babalawale Habib of the Action Peoples Party (APP), Ogembe Salau Ahmed of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Muhammed Aminu of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Suleiman Isah of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Salau Muritala Audu of the National Democratic Coalition (NDC), Onuja Umar Sunday of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) and Bashir Yusuf of the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

Also on the Kogi Central list is the incumbent senator, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, who is seeking re-election on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The list describes her qualifications as a First School Leaving Certificate, Senior School Certificate Examination and a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B).

Bello’s emergence as the APC standard-bearer followed a turbulent build-up marked by uncertainty over his eligibility. A pressure group, the Kogi APC Renaissance Forum, had warned months earlier that imposing the former governor on the party would cost it the senatorial seat, citing what it called his weak grassroots acceptance even within his home constituency.

Speculation also trailed his screening process, with reports suggesting complications that could have kept him out of the race entirely, before the party’s screening committee eventually cleared him alongside other aspirants from the three senatorial districts.

Bello reportedly went on to win the APC primary for Kogi Central by a wide margin, polling 72,399 votes across the five local government areas of the district against 319 votes for his closest rival, Ibrahim Yakubu Adoke, and 188 votes for another aspirant, Momoh Yusuf Obaro.

For Kogi East, the list includes 17 candidates contesting under various parties, among them Ameh Erico Joseph of the APC, Ochija Berikisu of the Democracy for the Liberation of Africa (DLA), Ojogbane Paul Ilemona of the National Democratic Party (NDP) and Muhammed Abdullahi of the PDP. In Kogi West, 14 candidates are in contention, led by Karimi Sunday of the APC, Musa Ibrahim Ahmadu of the ADC and Yusuf Ayo Tajudeen of the PDP.

The document lists no candidate as living with disability across all three districts, with the “PWD” column uniformly marked “None,” while ages of the candidates range from 36 to 73 years.

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