The Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of “systematically” removing its nominated candidates for the 2027 general elections and replacing them with “strange names unknown to the party”.
In a statement on Sunday, the NDC quoted its National Chairman, Moses Cleopas Zuwoghe, as saying the names published by INEC “read like a deliberate plot to sabotage the NDC ahead of the general elections and cause dissatisfaction among its millions of supporters”.
“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 unauthorised names in various constituencies, principally in the Anambra State House of Assembly (home state of our Presidential Candidate, His Excellency Peter Obi), where ten (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,” the statement read.
Cleopas called on the “INEC Chairman to urgently and immediately cause an investigation into the matter and unravel how this came to be.”
The party 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.
“The same investigation should also be carried out in other constituencies like Benue, Imo and others, as this mischief has not only caused 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,” it said.
“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.”
The NDC chair said the names “smuggled” into the NDC list of candidates include, but are not limited to, the following:
ANAMBRA (SHOA)
- Onitsha South 1 – Umennaajiego Jude Ezenwa
- Onitsha South 2 – Akpotue Obinna Chibuike
- Orumba North – Nwankwo Chiemerie
- Anaocha 1 – Maduagwu Eric K
- Idemili North – Ngoebisi Obinna
- Njikoka 1 – Isintume Charles
- Nnewi South – Nwachukwu Nonso
- Nnewi South 2 – Okeke Ifeanyi Akunne
- Ayamelum – Nnonyelu Samson E.
- Dunukofia – Azotani Chuks Francis
“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,” the party said.
“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 in the field.
“Even after the NDC had formally appealed 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 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.”
This not only runs against the grain of the Electoral Act and INEC’s own guidelines, but it is also simply unacceptable, the NDC chairman said.
“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 said.
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