About 70 serving members of the National Assembly were subtly stopped by the All Progressives Congress, APC, from returning to the federal legislature at the party’s primaries last Saturday in the buildup to the 2027 general elections.

Several serving federal lawmakers in either the Senate or the House of Representatives were defeated in the direct primary election in various states, paving way for new candidates to take their seats.

The states where seating federal lawmakers were defeated include Benue, Nasarawa, Edo, Imo, Kwara, Kebbi, Jigawa, Delta, Cross River, Ogun, and Plateau.

Meanwhile, many of the defeated lawmakers have rejected the outcome of the primaries, contesting manipulation of the processes.