Veteran journalist and former presidential aide, Reuben Abati, has suggested that President Bola Tinubu demonstrated political dominance following the outcome of the All Progressives Congress, APC, presidential primary.

This is even as the veteran journalist in veiled remark questioned the eleven million votes won by Tinubu, saying basic vote counting appeared difficult during some of the party primaries held over the weekend.

Speaking on Arise Television’s Morning Show on Monday, Abati said Tinubu’s overwhelming victory at the APC primary showed that he was “the owner of the game.”
According to him, the president’s emergence with over 11 million votes against his challenger, Stanley Osifo, who secured just over 1,000 votes, sent a strong political message to opposition parties ahead of the 2027 general elections.

He noted that the APC primary result created what he described as a “demonstration effect” for opposition figures, including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the African Democratic Congress, ADC.

Abati said the implication was that opposition candidates would need to secure more votes than the figures already recorded for Tinubu within his party.
He, however, pointed out that the APC primary process was not without controversy, noting that there were protests and disagreements over the adoption of consensus and direct primaries in some areas.

Abati said: “I think we should get to a point in this country where we should start a Tinubu school of politics and strategy, because what President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has done over the weekend is to show that he’s the owner of the game. 
“What the APC has done, basically, particularly with the presidential primaries, is to show that, okay, the president has been given 11 million votes. 
“If he already has 11 million votes from the party and the challenger, one guy called Stanley Osifo, whom the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives said in Abia State got 1000 plus votes to Tinubu’s 11 million votes. It’s to show that, look, ‘I’m the owner of this game’.

“End of the day, what would the opposition politicians get, whether it’s Dumebi Kachikwu or it is Atiku Abubakar that emerges today, or whoever emerges in any of the other political parties that are trying to show that they are present on the register, already President Tinubu has presented you with a demonstration effect.
“If his party can give him a 11 million votes then the opposition will need to get more than that.
“And yet during the various events that you have seen over the weekend in the last few days, to even count 1,2,3, basic arithmetics, which you start primary school with, was a problem for that particular political party (APC). That strategy was very smart, very clever, some people would say.
“On a general basis, the President has shown that, okay, he has this strategy: If his party has already given him 11 million votes, then, of course, who is.. how many people are even on the INEC voters register? 
“But beyond all of that, we also saw that there were protests. There were disagreements arising from the choice of consensus and direct primaries in other places.”

Four governorship aspirants of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Gombe State have rejected an alleged move to bring former Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, into the party’s governorship primary race ahead of the 2027 elections.

The aspirants, Alhaji Abdulkadir Hamma Saleh, Hon. Khamisu Ahmed Mailantarki, Hon. Usman Aliyu Garry and Mrs. Monica Kaltho, made their position known in a communiqué issued after an emergency meeting held on Sunday in Gombe.

They alleged that there were plans to “smuggle” Pantami into the PDP after he had already participated in the governorship primaries of the ruling All Progressives Congress,APC, on May 21, 2026.

According to the communiqué, the aspirants argued that the Electoral Act and democratic principles do not permit an aspirant to defect from one political party to another and still participate in the same electoral process after already contesting and securing votes in another party’s primaries.

“Following the rumoured attempt by an aspirant, Prof. Isa Ali Pantami, who participated in the recently concluded governorship primaries of the APC, to defect to the PDP with the sole aim of contesting in our party’s governorship primaries, we deem it necessary to make our position known,” the communiqué stated.

The aspirants said they “condemn in the strongest terms” any alleged attempt to allow Pantami to participate in the PDP governorship primary, insisting that such a move could expose the party to avoidable legal battles.

They further warned that any action capable of undermining the rule of law could trigger litigation from aggrieved party members and opposition parties.

The communiqué also revealed that the four aspirants had unanimously agreed to allow the PDP leadership in Gombe to select one among them as the party’s consensus candidate for the governorship election.

The decision, they said, was reached out of respect for the party leadership, particularly former Governor, Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, whom they described as the leader of the party in the state, alongside the PDP structure across the 11 local government areas and the party’s elders committee.

While reiterating that the PDP remains open to new members, the aspirants maintained that they strongly oppose the inclusion of anyone who had already taken part in another party’s governorship primary.

“While we welcome every well-meaning individual into the PDP, we strongly object to any attempt to involve such a person in the ongoing PDP gubernatorial primaries, which have already reached an advanced stage,” the communiqué added.

The ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, has declared President Bola Tinubu as its presidential candidate in the recently concluded primary election held across the nation.

Tinubu polled 10.99 million votes to defeat his only challenger, Stanley Osifo, who secured 16,504 votes.

DAILY POST highlights details of President Tinubu’s victory in the 36 states of the federation, including the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja.

Lagos: 814,988 

Adamawa: 644,149 

Kaduna: 618,914 

Imo: 582,960 

Kano: 500,852 

Katsina: 467,003

Gombe: 450,517 

Borno: 414,988 

Delta: 407,646 

Akwa Ibom: 389,197 

Enugu: 383,382 

Benue: 374,787 

Plateau: 241,720 

Bayelsa: 227,192 

Ebonyi: 207,579 

Jigawa: 206,520 

Kogi: 197,370 

Taraba: 183,698 

Ondo: 181,996 

Niger: 175,487 

Abia: 161,005 

Bauchi: 156,541 

Ogun: 322,485 

Zamfara: 321,579 

Kwara: 310,990 

Sokoto: 301,000 

Kebbi: 292,972 

Nasarawa: 285,436 

Rivers: 280,082 

Yobe: 253,804 

Cross River: 113,911 

Edo: 121,098 

Oyo: 142,754 

Osun: 100,888 

Ekiti: 85,340 

Anambra: 43,034 

FCT: 36,103