By CHARLES IWUOHA

The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ebonyi State, has fixed January 25, 2026 for the party 's primaries for the forthcoming local government Chairmanship and Councillorship elections in the state.

The state chairman of the party, Chief Stanley Okoro Emegha, disclosed this to journalists in Abakaliki the state capital after State Executive Council meeting of the party held on Monday.

He advised political appointees who want to contest the elections to resign in line with governor Francis Nwifuru's directive last month.

"The primary election for both councillorship and chairmanship will hold on January 25, but the processes will commence earlier in January,” he added.

“If you are a public servant under the governor’s appointment, you must resign 30 days to the primary election. Anybody that did not resign by December 20, 2025, is not qualified to contest,” Emegha said.

The Chairman said membership revalidation would begin once the party receives the required registration code.

He assured members that transparency would guide all party activities.

He announced commencement of construction of a new APC secretariat in the state which he said would be completed within six months, describing it as massive structure.

“The complex and the spaces are far larger than that of the national secretariat. This goes to show that we want to continue to maintain our number one position as a party in Ebonyi State,” he said.

He boasted that the APC currently has total political control in the state with all the opposition lawmaker of the state extraction now APC members

“We have 171 out of 171 ward councillors, 13 out of 13 local government chairmen, 24 out of 24 House of Assembly members, six National Assembly members and three out of three senators,” he stated.

Emegha revealed that the remaining opposition federal lawmaker in the state, Hon. Iduma Igariwey representing Afikpo and Edda federal constituency, has dumped PDP for the APC and has registered in his Itim 001 ward in Afikpo

“If I bring the register here, I will show you that this is Itim 001 ward — the ward of Chief Iduma Igariwey. His name is fully written in the register,” he said.