Mustapha Salihu

Mustapha Salihu (listed by INEC as Salihu Mustapha), widely styled "Comrade", is the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for Adamawa Central Senatorial District in the Senate election of 16 January 2027 (INEC final list, 12 September 2026). INEC lists him as a 49-year-old man who declared the First School Leaving Certificate, the SSCE and a PhD. He is reported to hail from Hildi in Hong Local Government Area; his 2021 journal articles place him in conflict, peace and strategic studies at Nile University of Nigeria, Abuja, and he was called to the Nigerian Bar in July 2025. In May 2026 he described himself as a former military man; no service details were found. He holds the traditional titles Sa'in Adamawa (approved by the Adamawa Emirate Council in 2021) and Baraden Jimeta. He has spoken of being in the CPC, one of the APC's founding parties, in 2011. Around July 2017 the APC named him acting National Vice Chairman for the North-East, and the June 2018 national convention elected him to the post. In October 2018 the North-East zonal secretary announced his suspension over allegations including forgery and failure to call meetings; the National Working Committee declared it a nullity and he said the zone had no power to suspend him. In March 2020 he backed the court order suspending national chairman Adams Oshiomhole, and in June 2020 he disowned an FCT High Court interim order, obtained in his name, that made him acting National Secretary, saying he was not a party to the suit. He left office when the NEC dissolved the National Working Committee on 25 June 2020 and was returned at the 26 March 2022 convention. In February 2023 his ward in Yola North suspended him for alleged anti-party activities; the state party called it void and the ward withdrew it within a week. President Bola Tinubu named him chairman of the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria board on 24 January 2025 (council inaugurated 25 July 2025) and chairman of the board of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) on 28 March 2025. In June 2025, at the APC North-East summit in Gombe, he left Vice President Kashim Shettima out of the zone's endorsement of Tinubu (he said party rules required it) and was attacked by people posing as delegates. After the Ganye state constituency by-election of 16 August 2025, a social media video accused him of carrying away election materials; he denied it, saying he had asked police to secure the materials from thugs. No investigation was found. He handed over as National Vice Chairman after the zone elected Idris Shuaibu on 25 March 2026. He declared for the APC governorship ticket on 6 May 2026 (the PDP governor, Ahmadu Fintiri, received him during his consultations), then withdrew on 20-21 May 2026 on directives from the party's national leadership to take the Adamawa Central senatorial slot. At the primary of 23 May 2026 he was declared the winner with 147,219 votes (Daily Post and The Nation; Blueprint reported 141,219) against eight others, including the serving senator Aminu Iya Abbas (2,182). In June 2026 a Tinubu women's support group and zonal elders said he had campaigned for governor rather than the Senate and asked that the ticket go to Aliyu Abbati Abdulhameed. No court challenge was found, and he remained the candidate on INEC's final list.