The Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, says the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has replaced some of its nominated candidates with names not authorised by the party.
The party’s National Chairman, Senator Moses Cleopas Zuwoghe, stated this while reacting to the list of candidates for State Houses of Assembly elections published by INEC.
Zuwoghe said the development could cause dissatisfaction among the party’s supporters ahead of the 2027 general elections.
He expressed particular concern over names published as NDC candidates in some constituencies in Anambra State, which he said did not emerge from the party’s nomination process.
The NDC Chairman called on the INEC Chairman to immediately investigate how the names were uploaded and published as candidates of the party.
He said the investigation should also cover other constituencies across the country, including parts of Benue and Imo states, where the party claimed similar concerns had been observed.
According to Zuwoghe, the party’s preliminary findings raised questions about how names not submitted by the NDC were uploaded on the INEC portal.
He said, as the custodian of the code issued by INEC for uploading the party’s candidates, neither he nor the party uploaded the names in dispute.
Zuwoghe explained that after the party’s primaries and appeal process, a final list of candidates was agreed upon by relevant stakeholders and uploaded on the INEC portal.
However, he said some names remained on pending status because INEC’s system reportedly contained different names from reports submitted by officials who monitored the party’s primaries.
According to him, the party appealed the matter and submitted the names of its preferred candidates with the required documentation, but the issue was not resolved before the names were published.
The NDC Chairman also said INEC obtained Form EC-9 from some of the individuals directly before their names were published as candidates of the party.
He maintained that the names published by INEC were not the party’s authentic nominees.
Zuwoghe said the NDC would pursue the matter through legal means to seek redress and restore its candidates.
He urged members of the public and the party’s supporters to note that the names in dispute were not the candidates nominated by the NDC.
