The All Progressives Congress (APC) has declared that its nationwide membership, political structures and elected officials give it a significant organisational advantage over rival parties ahead of Nigeria’s 2027 general elections.

The party’s National Chairman, Professor Nentawe Yilwatda, made the claim on Saturday while receiving a pre-election fact-finding mission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) at the APC national secretariat in Abuja.

The delegation was led by former Sierra Leone Vice-President Victor Bockarie Foh, who said the mission was assessing Nigeria’s political environment to support efforts towards peaceful, free and credible elections.

In a statement issued on Sunday by his media aide, Abimbola Tooki, Yilwatda said the APC had approximately 13 million registered members nationwide and maintained an extensive organisational network across the country. He claimed the party was about three times larger than its closest rival, citing its membership database, grassroots structures and support groups.

According to the statement, the party has more than 261,000 executive members operating across its ward, local government, state and national structures. Yilwatda said the network, alongside organised groups representing youths, women and persons with disabilities, strengthened the APC’s capacity for grassroots engagement and campaign coordination.

The APC chairman also pointed to the party’s presence in elected offices as evidence of its political reach. He said the party had 31 governors, 88 senators and 208 members of the House of Representatives, while maintaining a substantial presence in state Houses of Assembly.

Yilwatda further stated that the APC had inaugurated its campaign council, begun preparations and uploaded its candidates to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s portal. He urged INEC to adhere to its published electoral timetable and apply the rules fairly to all political parties, warning against any adjustments that could give one party an undue advantage.

The chairman, however, said the APC was not treating its organisational strength as a guarantee of victory in 2027. He maintained that its preparations were based on its structures, candidate readiness and mobilisation capacity. Foh, meanwhile, said the ECOWAS mission would consult political stakeholders and rely on systematic observation and verified information in assessing Nigeria’s electoral environment.

The presidential and National Assembly elections are scheduled for January 16, 2027, while governorship and State House of Assembly elections are slated for February 6, according to INEC’s revised timetable. The coming months will test whether the APC’s claimed organisational advantage translates into electoral support at the polls.