2027: INEC lacks constitutional power to disqualify candidates – Oba Maduabuchi, SAN

By Musa Baba Adamu

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Oba Maduabuchi, has faulted the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over the omission of several candidates from its final list for the 2027 general elections, arguing that the commission lacks the constitutional authority to disqualify candidates.

Maduabuchi said neither the 1999 Constitution nor the Electoral Act empowered INEC to determine who was qualified to contest an election or disqualify candidates from participating in the electoral process.

The senior lawyer made the remarks during an interview on Arise Television following the publication of INEC’s final list of candidates on Friday, which reportedly excluded several aspirants seeking various elective positions in the 2027 elections.

He maintained that the powers of statutory bodies such as INEC must be exercised strictly within the limits established by the laws governing their operations.

According to him, the appropriate way to determine the powers of the electoral commission is to examine the relevant provisions of the Constitution and the Electoral Act.

“The police, Army and INEC are statutory creations. They are created by law. That law defines the ambit of the powers exercisable by those bodies. So, to know what a particular body has the capacity to do, you go back to its establishing statute. For INEC, these are the Electoral Act and the Nigerian Constitution,” he said.

Maduabuchi argued that neither of the two legal instruments expressly authorised INEC to disqualify candidates.

“These are the two documents you must look at. There is no provision in the 1999 Nigerian Constitution authorising INEC to disqualify anybody. There is none,” he stated.

He further argued that the Electoral Act did not empower the commission to determine whether an individual was qualified to contest an election.

“There is also no provision in the Electoral Act that gives INEC the power to decide whether somebody is qualified to contest an election. There is no such provision,” the senior advocate added.

The lawyer described the commission’s action as ill-advised, suggesting that INEC might have exceeded the limits of its statutory responsibilities by excluding candidates from the final list.

“So, INEC is simply… how do I describe it? I have to be careful with the words I use. But I think they are ill-advised, to say the least,” he said.

The controversy over the final list has generated reactions from affected political parties and candidates, some of whom have questioned the circumstances surrounding their exclusion and indicated plans to seek legal redress.

Among those affected are candidates of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) in Kano State, including governorship candidate Aminu Abdussalam Gwarzo and his running mate, Mustapha Rabiu Kwankwaso, whose names were reportedly omitted from the list.