Abdulrahman Haske, an aspirant for the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship ticket, said the party's primary in Adamawa State was marred by irregularities.

The allegations suggest a breakdown in the democratic process within the party. If the primary results were predetermined, it could undermine the legitimacy of the eventual candidate and spark legal challenges ahead of the general election.

Haske said the exercise lacked transparency and cited procedural breaches, including ballot-stuffing. He said the results were possibly pre-written before the voting process concluded [1, 3].

Reports from the primary indicate a divided atmosphere. While some observers noted that certain processes remained peaceful and favored specific candidates [3], other accounts describe a scene of fraud and fury [3].

Further evidence of irregularity surfaced through a viral video involving a former aspirant who had already quit the party. Despite leaving the race, that individual was recorded as receiving 9,537 votes [4].

Internal party tensions have also been linked to higher leadership. One senatorial aspirant who left the party said Governor Fintiri told 28 aspirants that President Bola Tinubu would decide the ticket allocation [5].

These claims of external influence and manufactured totals reflect a broader struggle for control within the Adamawa APC. Haske and other critics said the lack of a fair process disenfranchises party members, and weakens the party's standing in the state [1, 2].

“The primary was marred by irregularities and lacked transparency.”

The allegations of pre-written results and the recording of thousands of votes for a candidate who had already withdrawn suggest systemic flaws in the APC's internal primary mechanism in Adamawa. When party tickets are perceived as gifts from national leadership rather than the result of a transparent vote, it often leads to candidate defections and fragmented coalitions during the general election.