An aspirant in the All Progressives Congress primary for the Kogi West Senatorial District, Samuel Aro, has filed a suit at the Federal High Court in Lokoja challenging the party’s submission of Senator Sunday Karimi’s name to the electoral commission as its candidate.

Aro is asking the court to declare that he won the party’s May 18, 2026 primary and that the submission of Karimi’s name on July 11 is null and void, arguing that since he never withdrew from the race, the party is bound to recognize him as its lawful candidate and asking the court to order the electoral commission to accept his name instead. Karimi was officially declared winner of the primary after polling 51,665 votes, with reports at the time suggesting Aro and other aspirants had withdrawn ahead of the vote, a claim Aro disputes. The primary was widely reported to have proceeded on the basis of Karimi’s open endorsement as consensus candidate by state party stakeholders backed by Governor Usman Ododo, and the party’s leadership later affirmed him as the validly returned candidate following review by its appeals committee.