Benue APC primary faces fresh crisis as aspirant rejects Alia’s victory

By Christiana Ekpa

The controversy surrounding the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary in Benue State has deepened after one of the aspirants, Dr. Jeffrey Kuraun, rejected the outcome of the exercise and demanded either a rerun or recognition as the rightful winner.
Kuraun, who contested alongside Governor and former Secretary to the State Government, Terwase Orbunde, alleged that the primary election was marred by widespread irregularities, diversion of materials and denial of due process.
Governor Alia was officially declared winner of the primary after polling 367,786 votes, while Orbunde secured 3,247 votes and Kuraun received 2,923 votes.
However, addressing journalists in Abuja on Thursday, Kuraun insisted that the exercise did not reflect a credible democratic process and accused party officials of manipulating the election.
According to him, the process lacked transparency and failed to represent the true wishes of APC members across Benue State’s 276 council wards and 23 local government areas.
Kuraun claimed he was the only aspirant who fully complied with the party’s pre-election requirements by submitting a comprehensive list of ward and local government agents ahead of the primary.
He further stated that his supporters and agents were physically present across the state in anticipation of a transparent exercise, but alleged that election materials failed to arrive at many designated centres.
According to him, reports later emerged suggesting that some materials were diverted to unauthorized locations and allegedly ended up in the possession of government officials and political actors outside the approved electoral process.
He argued that the situation created opportunities for result fabrication in areas where voting allegedly never took place.
Kuraun also challenged anyone declared winner of the exercise to publicly provide authentic visual evidence showing accreditation, voting, counting and collation processes across all wards in the state.
Beyond the conduct of the primary itself, the aspirant accused the APC appeal committee of frustrating his attempts to seek redress through the party’s internal mechanism.
He claimed that committee members became unreachable when he attempted to formally submit his petition, forcing him to send his appeal and supporting documents directly to the APC national leadership through courier service.
According to him, despite acknowledgment of the complaint by the office of the National Chairman, he has yet to receive any formal response or invitation for a hearing.
Kuraun said he subsequently issued a pre-action notice through his lawyers, urging the party to address the matter before the expiration of timelines for pre-election disputes.
The aggrieved aspirant is now calling on the APC National Working Committee to either cancel the May 21 governorship primary and organise a fresh election under independent supervision or declare him winner based on what he described as substantial compliance with party guidelines.
He warned that the erosion of internal democracy within political parties poses a wider threat to democratic governance, insisting that credible leadership recruitment processes remain essential to public trust in elections.