By AbdulRahman Obaje
The Peoples Redemption Party, PRP Presidential Primary is marred by irregularities as insiders and stakeholders said the Party is abandoning its own founding principle, engineering election process to suit particular candidate.
According to a well-informed party insider the outcome of the Presidential primary election does not reflect the actual account of what happened, saying that the outcome was engineered and the inflation was not unintentional disorder but a deliberate plan orchestrated to deliver the nomination to a preferred candidate in service of a prearranged ticket.
Those same insiders point to reported plans for Mr. Duke to run alongside Senator Datti Baba-Ahmed, younger brother of the National Chairman, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed.
“We do not state these motives as proven fact. We state them as serious allegations raised by people positioned to know, allegations that the party’s leadership now has an obligation to answer rather than ignore.” The statement added,
The People Redemption Party conducted its presidential primary on May 25th, 2026 under guidelines it issued just one day before the election. The explicit guidelines said only members whose names appeared on the official membership register submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission as of 4 May 2026 were eligible to vote. That register was the governing document. It was the single source of truth agreed by all parties before a single ballot was cast.
Result declared as against that register, defies the fundamental tenet of mathematics.
For example, in Gombe State, a register of 348 members produced 1,431 votes, a 311 percent difference, with more than 1,000 ballots. In Bauchi State, a register of 593 members produced 760 votes, 167 more ballots than there were people permitted to cast vote. In Kwara State, 55 registered members somehow produced 82 votes, an excess of nearly 50 percent. These are only a few examples from the results released.
According to eye-witness, collation at the party’s National Headquarters was itself halted amid widespread irregularities, raising even deeper concerns about the integrity of the overall process.
Across these states, 996 registered members produced 2,273 votes. That is 1,277 ballots that correspond to no eligible voter on the party’s own INEC-approved list. More than half of the total declared vote did not lawfully exist.
According to the statement released by one of the Aspirant, Dr. Ufere,
“The phantom votes were not random. They broke overwhelmingly, in state after state, in favour of a single aspirant, Mr. Donald Duke, a man who joined the People Redemption Party only in the days immediately before the primary, having defected from another platform on the eve of the exercise. The pattern is consistent and lopsided enough to demand an explanation the party has so far refused to give.
“The questions deepen when one considers the candidate himself. Mr. Duke did not campaign for a single day of this contest. By available accounts, he was outside the country while the election was being conducted. He joined the People Redemption Party in secrecy after the relevant deadlines had already been breached. He openly offered to refund rival aspirants the costs they had incurred if they would step aside and allow him to emerge as a consensus candidate.
Also, according to a statement by the Yakubu Muhammed Kingsley YMK Nigeria Presidential Campaign Team, signed by the Director, Media and Communication, Prince Abdulrahman Obaje; “if internal democracy can be sacrificed so easily within PRP, then what moral right does the party have to promise Nigerian’s change, justice, fairness, and good governance?
The statement further revealed that the reason why they joined PRP is because of the believed that the party has over-grown money politics, political manipulation, imposition, electoral irregularities, and elite control of democratic processes.
“We believed that PRP was founded on the ideology of Justice, Equality, Accountability, Transparency, People-driven politics, And protection of the ordinary masses.
But today, many of our loyal members are asking painful questions: that
• HAS THE PARTY ABANDONED ITS ORIGINAL IDEOLOGY?
• HAS THE VOICE OF THE ORDINARY MEMBERS BEEN REPLACED BY THE POWER OF MONEY AND ARRANGEMENT?
• HAS PRINCIPLE BEEN SACRIFICED FOR POLITICAL CONVENIENCE?
If genuine concerns raised across the states regarding irregularities, transparency, and credibility are ignored, then confidence in the internal democratic process of the party may continue to weaken.
The Chairman, Media and Communication of the Presidential Campaign Team, Alhaji Suleman Yunusa further said, “A political party cannot successfully fight national injustice while ignoring concerns about fairness within its own structure.
“This moment requires courage, transparency, accountability, and sincere leadership.
The statement charges the leadership of the party to immediately retrack its steps to protect its dignity and integrity.
The statement further said, “The current leadership of PRP still has an opportunity to prove that:
• The party belongs to the people,
• Rules still matter,
• Internal democracy still matters,
• and justice still matters.
“History will remember whether the party defended its founding principles — or abandoned them when it mattered most, because Justice strengthens institutions, Transparency builds trust and Internal democracy protects party credibility.”, the statement concluded.