The Progressives Governors Forum (PGF), the umbrella body of governors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has rejected any alliance or political arrangement that could undermine President Bola Tinubu’s re-election bid or affect the party’s candidates in the 2027 general election.

The governors said they would neither participate in, support nor endorse any political arrangement capable of weakening the APC or creating competing interests within the ruling party.

Chairman of the forum and Imo State Governor, Senator Hope Uzodimma, made the position known after a closed-door meeting of the governors at the Imo State Governor’s Lodge in Abuja.

Reading the communique issued after the meeting, Uzodimma said the governors’ priority was to support candidates officially fielded by the APC at all levels.

He said the forum had no intention of supporting candidates outside the APC, stressing that the party’s candidates were contesting under its platform.

“The APC Governors Forum unanimously resolved that its members will not participate in, support or endorse any alliance or political arrangement capable of undermining the re-election of Mr President, weakening the APC or adversely affecting any candidate of the party at all levels.

“In other words, the forum has no intention to support any candidate at any level that is not an APC candidate because our candidates who are contesting the election are being sponsored by our party.

“The governors’ campaign commitment is exclusively to all APC candidates. All levels of the party campaign architecture will align with the expectations of Mr President and the strategic objectives of the party.”

On the proposed APC Presidential Campaign Council, the governors said they would take leading roles in mobilising support for Tinubu’s re-election in their respective states.

According to them, the campaign strategy would focus on grassroots mobilisation, with efforts to reach communities and engage different demographic groups across the country.

The governors also pledged to strengthen internal party unity and harmonise campaign structures from the national level down to the constituencies.

They said they would equally continue to drive development in their respective states in line with the administration’s Renewed Hope agenda. agenda.

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to review the use of politically exposed academics as returning and collation officers for the 2027 elections.

The party made the call in a statement issued on Monday by Bolaji Abdullahi, its national publicity secretary.

The ADC’s position followed a newspaper report that more than 600 senior lecturers from public universities across northern Nigeria had endorsed President Bola Tinubu for the 2027 presidential election.

The party said the reported endorsement raises concerns about electoral credibility and potential conflict of interest, particularly because university lecturers and vice-chancellors have routinely been appointed to collate election results and declare winners.

The ADC acknowledged that academics, like every other Nigerian, have the constitutional right to support or endorse political candidates.

However, the party argued that anyone who has openly taken a partisan position should not subsequently be entrusted with determining the outcome of an election involving the candidate they endorsed.

“You cannot campaign for a candidate and then be entrusted with counting the votes and declaring winners in the same election that your candidate is contesting in,” the statement reads.

The ADC urged INEC to establish and publish clear criteria that would exclude academics and other prospective election officials who have publicly endorsed candidates, participated in partisan political activities or demonstrated an obvious political affiliation.

The party also asked the commission to publish the names of proposed returning and collation officers sufficiently ahead of the elections.

According to the party, early publication would allow political parties and members of the public to identify and raise legitimate concerns about possible conflicts of interest.

“The integrity of an election does not begin when the first ballot is cast. It begins with the neutrality of the people entrusted to administer, collate, and declare its outcome,” the ADC said.

“Nigerians must never be placed in a position where those who have publicly chosen a side are subsequently presented as neutral arbiters of the contest.”

The party said its call was aimed at strengthening public confidence in the electoral process ahead of the 2027 elections.

The Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, has called on the Nigeria Police Force to take proactive measures regarding the attack on its presidential candidate in Benue State.

The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Osa Director, made the call on Friday while fielding questions in an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, asking the police to make the prosecution of the culprits public.

He commended the arrest of 46 suspects linked to the attack but warned against the tendency to sweep the matter under the carpet.

Director, therefore, demanded greater accountability, urging the police to ensure that those arrested are prosecuted publicly.

“The police should have prevented those miscreants and hoodlums from gathering at that place to block our presidential candidate from entering Benue or, in the worst-case scenario, arrested them on the spot while they were there.

“They should not have waited for the event to happen before they started reacting. But still, we commend them for taking this professional decision of going after those suspected to have committed that act.

“We are also using this opportunity to demand from the Inspector-General of Police that this should not just be a round-off situation where we hear about arrests but, at the end of the day, we don’t know what happened to those who were arrested,” he said.