NDC Claims INEC Replaced Its Candidates with Unknown Names

The Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of removing its nominated candidates for the 2027 general elections. The party claims INEC replaced these candidates with strange names that the party does not recognize.

Moses Zuwoghe, the NDC National Chairman, made the accusation in a statement shared on the party's official X handle on Sunday.

He pointed out that INEC published a list for the NDC Anambra State House of Assembly candidate. He said this looks like a plan to sabotage the NDC before the general elections and cause unhappiness among its many supporters.

“The NDC totally condemns the action of the INEC and its officials for uploading and publishing unauthorized names in various constituencies, especially in Anambra State, which is the home state of our presidential candidate, Peter Obi. Ten names that are unknown to the party and not authorized by us have now been published as candidates,” he said.

Zuwoghe called on INEC to quickly investigate the situation and find out how this happened. He added that the investigation should also look into other areas where the NDC has seen a trend of excluding real candidates and instead using imposters chosen by INEC.

“As a party, we are also doing our own investigation. Our early findings suggest that some INEC officials are involved in pushing names that are not our candidates onto the public. They seem to be using the uploading process to blackmail and intimidate the party,” he said.

Zuwoghe listed some of the names that were allegedly added to the NDC candidates list. These include Umennaaijiego Jude Ezenwa (Onitsha South I), Akpotue Obinna Chibuike (Onitsha South II), Nwankwo Chiemerie (Orumba North), Maduagwu Eric K. (Anaocha I), and Ngoebisi Obinna (Idemili North).

Others mentioned were Isintume Charles (Njikoka), Nwachukwu Nonso (Nnewi South), Okeke Ifeanyi Akunne (Nnewi South II), Nnonyelu Samson (Ayamelum), and Azotani Chuks Francis (Dunukofia).

Zuwoghe emphasized that he and the NDC leadership did not upload those names on the INEC portal. “After our primaries and the appeal process, stakeholders from Anambra worked with the party leadership and our presidential candidate’s representatives to create a final list of candidates. This list was signed off by everyone involved.

“However, when we uploaded that list to the INEC portal with the code given to us, INEC officials kept nine of the names in ‘pending’ status. They claimed their system already had those names, which they said were submitted by their officials monitoring the NDC primaries,” he explained.

Zuwoghe expressed surprise that INEC ignored the NDC's formal appeal against the uploading of these names. He said these individuals were not part of the party’s leadership. “To confirm that there was a plan by INEC to impose these nine candidates on us, they went behind the NDC to collect the Form EC-9 directly from the candidates. They uploaded this without working with the party and published the names as our authentic candidates,” he said.

Zuwoghe described this situation as unacceptable. He said INEC's actions go against the Electoral Act and INEC’s own rules. He argued that instead of uploading fake names, INEC could have left the NDC’s space blank if they believed the submitted list did not match what their teams provided.

“At the very least, INEC could have left us with no candidates for those positions if they were unwilling to engage us about any issues,” he said.

Zuwoghe criticized what he sees as a pattern by INEC to prevent political parties from uploading their rightful candidates while selecting candidates for them and causing problems within those parties. He suggested that opposition parties seem to be the main targets of the electoral commission.

He promised that the NDC would take legal action against INEC to fix what they call “mischief.” “As we prepare to go to court for our rightful candidates, we want our supporters and the public to know that these are not our candidates,” he said about the candidates uploaded by INEC.

When contacted on Monday, INEC spokesperson Mohammed Haruna denied the NDC’s claims. He explained that the commission only uploaded a copy of the NDC’s list of candidates, which was signed during the party’s primaries by both the party’s representatives and INEC officials.

Haruna added that, according to their guidelines, INEC trained a representative of the NDC to upload the party’s list of candidates to the electoral body’s portal. “If representatives try to upload a list that is different from what was originally uploaded, it will not come to our system.

“Even a small error in spelling names could cause the portal to reject the upload. If they want to change a candidate, they have to inform us about it. Without notifying us, they cannot change it from their end,” he said.