THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has rejected former President Goodluck Jonathan’s presidential nomination submitted by the Kabiru Turaki-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The Turaki camp had insisted earlier that it had manually delivered Jonathan’s candidacy and the names of its other candidate in next year’s general elections to the Commission, further deepening the party’s leadership crisis.
INEC’s Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Victoria Eta-Messi, said the Commission does not accept nominations outside its designated electronic channel, adding: “Submission is only done on a dedicated portal as stipulated by our regulations and guidelines.”
But Turaki camp’s National Publicity Secretary, Ini Ememobong, told journalists that it opted for manual submission after INEC declined to release access codes needed for electronic filing, which he said were merely an administrative convenience rather than a legal requirement.
According to him: “Notwithstanding INEC’s refusal to provide us with the necessary access codes… we have successfully submitted, manually and in full compliance with the Electoral Act 2026, the list of candidates sponsored by the authentic Peoples Democratic Party.”
He said the submission, covering Jonathan’s presidential nomination, alongside all governorship, National Assembly and state assembly candidates fielded by the camp, had been acknowledged by INEC, despite the standoff over recognition.
Ememobong cautioned INEC against publishing any list at variance with what his faction submitted, vowing to explore every available legal option to protect the party’s structure.
He stated that the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) and a requisitioned National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting constituted the Interim National Working Committee (INWC), led by Turaki, after a Supreme Court judgment left the PDP without a legally recognised national leadership.
He told Vanguard that INEC’s refusal to acknowledge the interim leadership, despite formal notification, pushed the party to seek judicial intervention.
Ememobong faulted a subsequent Federal High Court judgment on the matter, describing it as an attempt to relitigate settled questions of law, adding: “The judgment… reads more like an appeal on the judgment of the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal.
“It is clearly inconsistent with the extant decisions of the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal that form the foundation of our case.”
He noted that the party had appealed the judgment and would separately challenge alleged discrepancies between the ruling delivered in court and its Certified True Copy (CTC).
Ememobong accused INEC of abandoning its constitutional neutrality in handling the dispute, saying: “The Commission’s actions have regrettably reinforced the growing public perception that it is no longer acting with the impartiality expected of the nation’s electoral umpire.”
He alleged that INEC withheld material facts during court proceedings involving the party and disregarded congresses it had monitored, adding that the party’s troubles were part of a wider design to cripple opposition parties and entrench one-party dominance in the country.
“We were the pioneer target for opposition dismantling and capture… but it has now spread to almost all the opposition parties,” stated.
He urged Nigerians to rise in defence of multi-party democracy, warning that unchecked electoral authoritarianism would stall the country’s democratic consolidation, even as he expressed optimism that his committee would ultimately prevail.
