NDC Claims APC is Blocking Candidate from 2027 Elections as Court Sets Hearing Date

The Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) has accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of trying to stop its governorship candidate, Aminu Abdussalam, from appearing on the ballot for the 2027 election in Kano State.

The APC responded by saying that the NDC is facing problems from a crisis after its primary election. This crisis made some unhappy aspirants go to court.

Rabiu Kwankwaso, who is the NDC vice-presidential candidate, claimed that the APC is behind the omission of Mr Abdussalam's name from the final candidate list published by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Mr Abdussalam and his running mate, Mustapha Kwankwaso, were not on the final INEC list released on October 11.

On Monday, Mr Kwankwaso repeated his claim after INEC released an updated list on Saturday, which still did not include Mr Abdussalam’s name.

In a video shared on social media, Mr Kwankwaso said the state government first tried to pressure INEC to drop the NDC candidate. He alleged that when this failed, they turned to the courts.

He said the state leadership made a big political mistake by switching to the APC. They have since been trying to block the NDC from having a candidate.

"What he wanted was for INEC to declare that there was no governorship candidate in Kano NDC. When that did not happen, they went to court seeking the disqualification of our candidate," Mr Kwankwaso said, referring to Governor Abba Yusuf, though he did not mention him by name.

Mr Kwankwaso also said that associates of the governor secretly filed the lawsuit against the party and INEC to avoid public attention.

He claimed the legal action was set up so that the NDC candidate would not know about it until the judgment was made.

He insisted that the candidate has no legal or constitutional issues preventing him from running.

"Our candidates have no issues relating to age, educational qualification or any other constitutional requirement. There is nothing that should stop them from contesting the election," he said.

Mr Kwankwaso added that the ruling party is afraid of a fair election, fearing that Kano voters would not support the APC.

Late Monday, Umar Doguwa, the Kano State APC Chairman, dismissed the claims. He said in a statement that the issues within the NDC, not outside interference, caused the omission of the candidate from the INEC list.

Mr Doguwa called the allegation false and baseless, saying it is an attempt by Mr Kwankwaso to blackmail the APC and its candidate. He insisted that neither the party nor Governor Yusuf was involved in the legal matters.

"The case originated from the internal crisis within the NDC," Mr Doguwa explained, stating that unhappy NDC members took action against their own party.

He said attempts to link the APC and its candidate to the situation were misleading and aimed at diverting attention from the NDC's internal problems.

Mr Doguwa reiterated that the APC did not support, influence, or help with the lawsuit. He challenged Mr Kwankwaso to provide real proof connecting the APC or Governor Yusuf to the case instead of making claims that could mislead the public and create political tension.

The Federal High Court in Kano has issued a temporary order stopping INEC from publishing or changing the governorship candidate list concerning the NDC for the 2027 elections.

Justice Samuel Amobeda made this ruling on an urgent application in Suit No. FHC/KN/CS/440/2026.

The lawsuit was brought by three plaintiffs, Garba Isa, Yau Nasiru, and Atiku Jamilu-Abubakar, against INEC as the first defendant and the NDC as the second defendant.

The urgent application, filed on October 17, was presented by the applicants' lawyer, S.A. Abdullahi, who asked for quick legal protection regarding the candidate list.

Justice Amobeda granted the temporary order, stopping the electoral commission and its representatives from changing the list until the main application is decided.

The court order states:

"That the 1st Defendant/Respondent, its agents, privies, assigns, officers or any person or group of persons deriving authority from it are restrained from publishing the name of any candidate in the Gubernatorial List of candidates as it relates to the 2nd Defendant/Respondent in the Kano Gubernatorial election for 2027 pending the Hearing of the Motion on Notice.

"That the 1st Defendant/Respondent, their agents, privies, assigns, officers or any person or group of persons deriving authority from them are restrained in the interim from tampering, altering, adding to or subtracting from the final Gubernatorial list of the 1st Defendant/Respondent published on or about the 10th day of October 2026 pending the Hearing of the Motion on Notice.

"That the Order and the Processes shall be served on the Defendants before the next Adjourned date.

"That accelerated hearing is ordered."

The court documents support the electoral commission’s position that its handling of the candidate list must follow existing court rulings.

Justice Amobeda then postponed the case to November 2 for hearing.