2027: NDC accuses INEC of changing party’s candidates

By Jude Opara

The Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of systematically supplanting its nominated candidates for the 2027 general elections, and replacing the same with strange names not known to the party.

National Chairman of the party, Sen. Moses Cleopas Zuwoghe while reacting to the list of candidates for the State Houses of Assembly elections published on Sunday by INEC, said the names published by INEC appears to be a deliberate plot to sabotage the NDC ahead of the general elections and cause dissatisfaction among its millions of members and supporters.

The statement read in part:

“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, His Excellency Peter Gregory Obi), where nine (9) names, unknown to the party; names not authorized 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 cause an investigation into the matter and unravel how this came to be”.

The party further requested that the investigation should also be extended to other constituencies nationwide, where the NDC had observed a pattern of removing the names of authentic candidates of the party for those chosen by INEC.

“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.

“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 Chairman gave some of the names of those allegedly smuggled into the NDC list of candidates to include:

ANAMBRA (SHOA)

1. Onitsha South 1 – Umennaajiego Jude Ezenwa
2. Onitsha South 2 – Akpotue Obinna Chibuike
3. Orumba North – Nwankwo Chiemerie
4. Anaocha 1 – Maduagwu Eric K
5. Idemili North – Ngoebisi Obinna
6. Njikoka 1 – Isintume Charles
7. Nnewi South 1– Nwachukwu Nonso
8. Nnewi South 2 – Okeke Ifeanyi Akunne
9. Ayamelum – Nnonyelu Samson E.
10. Dunukofia – Azotani Chuks Francis

Sen. Cleopas wrote; “I, as Chairman of the Party and custodian of the code given to the NDC by INEC 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 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 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”.

He further claimed that INEC deliberately decided to impose their own preferred candidates on the NDC to embarrass the party and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi.

“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 Gregory 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 provisions of the Electoral Act and INEC ‘s own guidelines, it is simply unacceptable”, the NDC National Chairman said.

According to him, “the worst INEC can do in a situation whereby the names submitted by the party do not tally with those INEC claimed to have received from its monitoring teams on the field is to leave the space blank, not to preload fictitious names and prevent the party from loading its genuine candidates.

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.”

The NDC Chairman vowed that the party will pursue the matter to the very end, and ensure that the right thing is done and the mischief is reversed.