*Electoral Body Rejects Allegation, Says Has No Power To Substitute Candidates
- ‘Legitimate Concerns Would Be Addressed’
THE (INEC) has insisted that it did not alter or tamper with the list of House of Assembly candidates of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), saying it has no power to do so.
Recall that on Sunday, August 30, NDC accused the Commission of removing its nominated candidates for next year’s election and replacing them with “impostors,” who are unknown to the party.
Its National Chairman, Moses Cleopas Zuwoghe, said the list of candidates for the Anambra State House of Assembly elections published by INEC contained 10 “strange names.”
In its position following the list of candidates published on Sunday by INEC, Zuwoghe said the names published by INEC looked like a deliberate plot to sabotage the party ahead of the general elections and cause dissatisfaction among its supporters.
He said, in a statement: “The Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) totally condemns the action of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and its officials over the uploading and publication of unauthorized names in various constituencies, principally in the Anambra State House of Assembly (home state of our presidential candidate, Peter Obi), where 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.
“We call on the INEC Chairman to urgently and immediately begin an investigation into the matter and unravel how this came to be.” He 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 for INEC-chosen imposters.
He stated: “The same investigation should also be carried out in other constituencies like Benue, Imo and others, as this mischief has not only cased an embarrassment to the party, its leadership and genuine candidates, but has also caused a lot of disaffection among the millions of the party’s supporters all over the country and in the Diaspora.
“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 in foisting names purporting to be our candidates, but who are not from us, and using the uploading process as a tool of blackmail and intimidation against the party, and getting those names to be uploaded and published, for whatever purpose or ulterior motive.”
He listed the names smuggled into the NDC list of candidates to include Umennaajiego Jude Ezenwa (Onitsha South 1); Akpotue Obinna Chibuike (Onitsha South 2); Nwankwo Chiemerie (Orumba North); Maduagwu Eric K. (Anaocha 1); Ngoebisi Obinna (Idemili North); Isintume Charles (Njikoka 1); Nwachukwu Nonso (Nnewi South); Okeke Ifeanyi Akunne (Nnewi South 2); Nnonyelu Samson E. (Ayamelum); and Azotani Chuks Francis (Dunukofia).
According to Zuwoghe: “I, as chairman of the party and custodian of the code given to the NDC for the upload of our candidates, never uploaded those names, and I unequivocally state that the party did not also upload those nine names.
“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 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.
“Even after the NDC had formally appealled those names, on the ground that they did not come from the party’s nomination process, and also sent the names of the actual candidates nominated by the party, with the necessary covering letter, INEC remained adamant.
“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 Obi, INEC went behind the NDC to collect the Form EC-9 directly from the candidates, bypassing the party, and uploading same.
“It then went ahead to publish the controversial names as authentic candidates of the party.
“This not only runs against the grain of the Electoral Act and INEC’s own guidelines, it is also simply unacceptable.”
The NDC national chairman said the worst INEC could have done in a situation where the names submitted by the party do not tally with those it claimed to have received from its monitoring teams on the field was to leave the space blank, not to preload fictitious names and prevent the party from loading its genuine candidates.
He insisted: “At the very worst, INEC 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 decried the emerging pattern whereby INEC deliberately prevents parties from uploading their rightful candidates, while handpicking candidates for the parties and instigating a crisis of confidence and internal disharmony within the said parties.
Noting that this has been particularly so for the opposition parties, Zuwoghe vowed that the party will pursue the matter to the very end and ensure that the right thing is done.
“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 stated.
In his reaction on Monday, Chief Press Secretary to Joash Amupitan, Chairman of INEC, Adedayo Oketola, in a chat with TheCable, described the allegations as “serious,” insisting INEC does not nominate candidates for political parties.
Oketola said that responsibility rests with political parties, subject to the Constitution, Electoral Act 2026 and other applicable laws, regulations and guidelines, adding: “The Commission does not possess the legal authority to select a candidate for a political party or substitute its own preferred candidate for a person validly nominated by a political party in accordance with the law.”
He said political parties submit their candidates’ particulars through INEC’s candidate nomination portal, using access credentials issued for that purpose, and that all activities relating to the submission of candidates through the portal are electronically recorded and can be verified through the commission’s records and audit trail.
Oketola noted that the records can establish the history and source of entries relating to any candidate whose name appears on the portal, adding that the allegation should not be determined through speculation, as the Commission’s electronic and documentary records can establish the relevant facts.
He explained that INEC’s responsibility to monitor political party primaries is separate from the parties’ responsibility to nominate and submit their candidates, and monitoring a party primary does not amount to INEC nominating a candidate, as reports by officials who monitor primaries do not give the Commission the power to choose candidates for political parties.
The INEC boss’s spokesman stated: “INEC cannot assume the role of a political party in choosing its candidates, nor can it disregard applicable statutory requirements governing the nomination and submission of candidates.
“Any credible allegation of misconduct by an official of the Commission will be investigated in accordance with established procedures.”
He assured that the electoral umpire has no institutional interest in political parties’ choice of candidates, adding that political parties also have a responsibility to ensure that their nomination processes, internal appeals, submission of candidates and use of INEC’s candidate nomination portal comply with the law and prescribed timelines.
He restated that the Commission will neither nominate candidates for political parties nor lend itself to the imposition of candidates on any political party, assuring that legitimate concerns about the candidate nomination process would be addressed based on the Commission’s records and the applicable law.
