Ahead of the 2027 presidential election, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has expressed its resolve to “fight through the system” in whittling down the huge influence of Labour Party’s 2023 standard bearer, Peter Obi, in the southern part of the country.
Top Society recalls that during the last general election, Obi won nine out of 17 states in the South. The politician is now with the African Democratic Congress (ADC), where he is seeking to fly the party’s flag in the 2027 contest against President Bola Tinubu of the APC.
He eventually came third with 6,101,533 votes (25.40%), behind Bola Tinubu of the APC, who scored 8,794,726 votes (36.61%), and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who garnered 6,984,520 votes (29.07%).
Speaking at the party’s national convention concluded over the weekend, the APC Deputy National Chairman (South), Ben Nwoye acknowledged Obi’s sweeping victory in the South and asserted that the party will not take Obi for granted this time, stressing that they will work hard to ensure that APC gets every vote that it needs to win.
His words, “If you come to the South-East and you see what happened in the last election, it was the grand zero for the Obidient movement, they practically took everywhere, including my state. I mean, they won two out of three Senate seats, I think they won 15 out of 24 House of Assembly seats, and they won seven out of eight House of Reps seat, so it’s huge.
“So, when you have the man sitting there and he went to Delta State, took some, went to Edo State, he won, and of course, he won in Lagos State. So, when you have such figure moving around, you should be prepared, and remember he has his two feet on party, on one hand the Obidient movement is there and alive and the ADC, and he said he is going to run.
“So, when you have that, every vote is going to count, we are going to fight through the system, we are going to make sure we get as much as possible to win.”
The APC bigwig. who used to be the APC chairman in Enugu State, observed that the ruling party will face its biggest challenge in the 2027 election from the South, reemphasising the party’s readiness for the battle ahead.
“Last time it was down south, and this time it is going to be down south because you have different people wanting to be president from the south. You have the Obi himself, of course, you have (Rotimi) Amaechi and some others who have not really declared, but we know that they are warming up,” he added.
Nwoye is part of the new national executive of the ruling party elected during the party’s convention held over the weekend. The party’s 8th national convention also saw Nentawe Yilwatda returned as national chairman. Apart from Yilwatda, the APC picked Surajudeen Basiru as its secretary. The duo and other members of the National Working Committee (NWC) were elected via a consensus arrangement ratified by delegates at the convention.
