Governor Hyacinth Alia of Benue State thought he had won because his candidates swept the APC National Assembly primaries in May, defeating the loyalists of Senator George Akume, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF). The results were announced, and the race looked settled. Then Abuja intervened.

The APC’s National Working Committee overturned the primary results entirely, replacing seven of Alia’s winning candidates with Akume’s preferred incumbents and submitting the revised list to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

To understand why the echoes of this turnaround have been getting louder and louder, it is important to capture the nucleus of the matter. Akume is one of the most powerful political figures in Benue, a veteran senator and current SGF serving directly under President Bola Tinubu. It was Akume who sponsored Alia’s transition from Catholic priesthood to Government House in 2023.

The alliance did not survive Alia’s inauguration. The governor blocked Akume’s cabinet nominees, shut out his candidate for Speaker of the State Assembly, and built his own independent structure. By early 2026, the two men were running parallel APC executives in the same state.

During the May peace talks, Akume argued that President Tinubu wanted automatic tickets for incumbent lawmakers to ensure party stability. Alia rejected the idea and pushed for direct primaries, confident local votes would end the incumbents’ careers. His candidates won those primaries convincingly.

The NWC simply set aside those results after reviewing appeals from Akume’s camp.

The final INEC list splits tickets 7-7 between both factions, so Alia retains some ground—if one can ignore the damaging optics. After all, with his locally won primaries erased by a committee in Abuja, one lesson for those coming after him is that proximity to the presidency can outweigh control of a state. Whether it should be able to do so is another matter entirely.

Regardless, displaced candidates have threatened to go to court. More pressingly for Alia, his own second-term endorsement from the party is now an open question. (THISDAY)