Benue APC Primaries Split Akume and Mark Camps as Reps Tickets Shift

2027 Election Watch, Benue, Politics

Benue APC Primaries Split Akume and Mark Camps as Reps Tickets Shift

Benue’s APC primaries have stirred fresh political tension, with Blessing Onuh and Regina Akume securing House of Representatives tickets while six serving lawmakers were knocked out in a dramatic shake-up.

Atlantic Post

May 17, 2026

4–5 minutes

2027 Elections, Benue APC, Blessing Onuh, David Mark, George Akume, Regina Akume

The Benue chapter of the All Progressives Congress has once again exposed the party’s internal fault lines, even as it handed return tickets to two politically symbolic women whose family names now sit at the centre of Nigeria’s shifting opposition and ruling party battles.

Blessing Onuh, daughter of former Senate President and current African Democratic Congress National Chairman, David Mark, and Regina Akume, wife of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, both emerged victorious in Saturday’s House of Representatives primaries in Benue State.

The outcome is politically loaded. On one side stands David Mark, now firmly restored as ADC National Chairman by INEC after the party’s leadership dispute, and on the other stands George Akume, the SGF and one of the APC’s most influential northern power brokers.

Their household victories in rival political lanes underline how Benue has become a theatre of elite realignment ahead of the 2027 general elections.

What makes the result more striking is that Mark’s daughter won inside the APC while her father fronts the ADC coalition. That contradiction reflects the increasingly layered nature of Nigerian politics, where family ties, local political structures and national party battles no longer move in a straight line.

Onuh retained the Otukpo/Ohimini ticket, while Regina Akume held the Gboko/Tarka ticket in a primary exercise that was described by the committee chair as a “family affair.”

The primaries were not just about two well-known families. They produced a broader upset that appears to have favoured Governor Hyacinth Alia’s camp over Akume loyalists.

Reports from the exercise show that six serving federal lawmakers lost their return bids, including several widely linked to the SGF’s political structure.

Those defeated included Dickson Tarkighir of Makurdi/Guma, Sesoo Gboko of Vandeikya/Konshisha, Asema Achado of Gwer East/Gwer West, Ugbor Terseer of Kwande/Ushongo, Sekav Iortyom of Buruku, and David Ogewu of Oju/Obi.

The scale of the upset suggests more than a routine primary. It points to a real shift in the Benue APC balance of power, where the governor’s bloc now appears to be consolidating control of the party structure ahead of 2027.

That interpretation is strengthened by wider reporting on the long-running rift between Alia and Akume, a feud that has already pushed several Akume allies towards opposition platforms including the ADC, PDP, LP, SDP and NDC.

The scale of the contest also matters. Before voting, no fewer than 81 aspirants were battling for 11 House of Representatives tickets in Benue, with the Vandeikya/Konshisha and Makurdi/Guma constituencies drawing the highest levels of interest.

APC officials had promised a transparent process and said the party had made logistical and security arrangements to manage the exercise across the state’s 23 local government areas.

That promise of order, however, existed alongside the reality of tension. The primaries were delayed because returning officers faced distance and security challenges, while one constituency reportedly experienced cancelled wards and disrupted voting after materials were snatched.

Even so, the committee insisted the process was credible and urged all aspirants to accept the result in good faith.

Mahuta, who announced the final results for Benue, tried to project calm and party discipline. He said the winners had satisfied APC guidelines and electoral requirements, and he urged the losers to accept the outcome with maturity.

Vanguard reported that he described the election as “a family affair,” while P.M. News quoted him as stressing that there were “no winners or losers” in the spirit of party unity.

That language may be conciliatory, but the numbers tell a harsher story. Peter Egbodo thrashed David Ogewu in Oju/Obi, David Nongo defeated Asema Achado in Gwer East/Gwer West,

Livinus Tsar displaced Sesoo Gboko in Vandeikya/Konshisha, and Christopher Ikper unseated Dickson Tarkighir in Makurdi/Guma.

In Buruku, Gideon Inyom overcame Sekav Iortyom in a contest that was reportedly marred by allegations of result snatching before security personnel stepped in.

The political subtext is hard to miss. In a state where APC once relied on a strong alliance between Akume and Alia, the primaries suggest that the governor’s camp is now driving the internal machinery more effectively, while the SGF’s network is under serious pressure.

That reading is consistent with recent analyses of the Benue APC crisis, which described the party as increasingly polarised into rival camps and warned that defections were eroding Akume’s grip.

For David Mark, the symbolism is equally powerful. His daughter’s victory under APC, at the same moment he is leading an opposition coalition platform, gives Benue politics a peculiar mirror effect.

It shows how personal influence can transcend party labels, while also exposing the limits of ideological loyalty in a political system still dominated by family reputation, local alliances and strategic survival.

In practical terms, the APC in Benue has emerged from the primaries with fewer incumbents, more loyalists of the governor and a fresh round of grievances from defeated lawmakers.

In political terms, the exercise may mark one more step in the reordering of Benue’s 2027 battlefield, where the struggle is no longer simply APC versus opposition, but also Alia versus Akume, structure versus structure, and influence versus influence.