The Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of “systematically removing” the party’s nominated candidates for the 2027 general elections, and replacing them with “strange names” unknown to the party.
The NDC’s National Chairman, Moses Zuwoghe, disclosed this in a statement posted on the party’s official X handle on Sunday.
|
|
Giving an instance of the replacement, Mr Zuwoghe said INEC published a list of the NDC Anambra State House of Assembly candidate that “reads like a deliberate plot to sabotage the NDC ahead of the general elections and cause dissatisfaction among its millions of supporters.”
“The NDC, totally condemns the action of the INEC and its officials over the uploading and publication of unauthorised names in various constituencies, principally in the Anambra State House of Assembly, home state of our presidential candidate, Peter Obi, where 10 names unknown to the party; names not authorised by the party; names not sent by the party to INEC, in accordance with the law, have now been uploaded and published as candidates of the party,” he said.
|
|
|
|---|
The national chairman asked the electoral commission to urgently investigate the matter and unravel the circumstances surrounding the decision.
The official said the investigation should also be extended to other constituencies nationwide where the NDC had observed a pattern of fencing out “authentic candidates of the party INEC-chosen imposters.”
“We, as a party, are also carrying out our own independent investigation, the preliminary findings of which are already pointing to the complicity of INEC officials foisting names purporting to be our candidates, but who are not from us, and using the uploading process as tool of blackmail and intimidation against the party, and getting those names to be uploaded and published, for whatever purpose or ulterior motive,” he said.
Mr Zuwoghe listed some of the individuals allegedly smuggled into the NDC list of candidates, including Umennaaijiego Jude Ezenwa (Onitsha South I), Akpotue Obinna Chibuike (Onitsha South II), Nwankwo Chiemerie (Orumba North), Maduagwu Eric K. (Anaocha I), and Ngoebisi Obinna (Idemili North).
Others are Isintume Charles (Njikoka), Nwachukwu Nonso (Nnewi South), Okeke Ifeanyi Akunne (Nnewi South II), Nnonyelu Samson (Ayamelum), and Azotani Chuks Francis (Dunukofia).
How the names were uploaded without NDC approval
Mr Zuwoghe stressed that he and the NDC leadership never uploaded those names on the INEC portal.
“What happened was that after the conclusion of our primaries and the appeal process which is also a part and parcel of the primaries and candidates nomination process, the stakeholders from Anambra working with the party leadership, representatives of our presidential candidate, and the appeals panel, which is the tradition of our party, produced a final list of candidates, a list which was signed off on by all.
“However, when that final list was uploaded to the INEC portal, using the code given to us by the electoral commission, the INEC officials who are in complete control of the backend of the portal kept nine of the names on ‘pending’ status.
“Their claim was that their system already had those names, which they said were submitted by their officials who monitored the NDC primaries on the field,” he narrated.
The national chairman expressed surprise that the commission remained adamant despite the NDC formally appealing against the uploading of the individuals, as they were not part of the party’s leadership.
“To further confirm that there was a predetermined effort on the part of INEC to impose the said nine candidates on the party, and embarrass both NDC and Mr Peter Obi, INEC went behind the NDC to collect the Form EC-9 directly from the candidates, bypassing the party, and uploading the same.
“It then went ahead to publish the controversial names as authentic candidates of the party,” the official said.
‘This is unacceptable’
Mr Zuwoghe said the development was unacceptable and stressed that the INEC’s action “runs against the grain of the Electoral Act and INEC’s own guidelines.”
The national chairman argued that, rather than uploading “fictitious names,” INEC could have left the NDC’s space for the list of candidates blank if the commission believed that the party’s submitted list of candidates did not tally with those its monitoring teams supplied.
“At the very worst, NEC could have left us with no candidates for those positions if they knew they were unwilling to engage us in addressing any perceived anomaly,” he said.
‘Opposition parties probably on target’
Mr Zuwoghe frowned at the pattern of alleged deliberate effort by INEC to prevent political parties from uploading their rightful candidates while “criminally handpicking candidates for parties and instigating a crisis of confidence and internal disharmony within the said parties.”
The national chairman suggested that the opposition parties appear to be targeted by the electoral commission.
He vowed that the NDC would take legal action against INEC to ensure that what they termed “mischief” was reversed.
“Even as we move to approach the court of competent jurisdiction to seek redress and restore our authentic candidates, the general public and our millions of supporters should note that these are not our candidates,” he said of the disowned candidates uploaded by INEC.
INEC denies wrongdoing
When contacted on Monday, INEC spokesperson Mohammed Haruna denied the NDC’s allegations.
Mr Haruna explained that the electoral commission uploaded only a copy of the NDC’s list of candidates, which was signed at the party’s primaries by both the party’s representatives and the commission’s officials who monitored the primaries.
The INEC spokesperson further said that, in line with its guidelines, the commission trained a representative of the NDC, like representatives of other parties, who would have access to upload the party’s nominated candidates’ list to the electoral body’s portal.
“When (representatives of the parties) try to upload (the list of candidates), if it is different from what was originally uploaded, it will not come to our system.
READ ALSO: Obi to Nigerians: Don’t lose faith in electoral process
“So, they should ask their secretariat about the list of candidates they want to upload, whether it is different from what has already been uploaded based on results received from the party’s primaries by our monitors,” he said.
“The results that they signed by themselves (NDC) and our monitors immediately after the primaries are over are what we upload to our portal.”
Mr Haruna said even a mix-up or misspelling of names in the original list could lead to the portal rejecting the upload of such names as candidates.
“If they have their own internal mechanism, maybe an appeal to change a candidate, they have to tell us that this has happened.
“But if, without telling us, they want to change it, it will not even come to our system. It is not possible to even change it (from their end),” he said.
Discover more from Premium Times Nigeria
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
