NDC Rejects 10 Candidates Listed by INEC for Anambra Elections

The Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) has rejected 10 candidates listed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the 2027 Anambra State House of Assembly elections. The party insists it did not nominate these individuals or submit their Form EC9E documents.

The NDC is calling for an immediate electronic audit of INEC’s nomination portal. They want to find out how the names and details of these candidates ended up in the commission’s system.

Theophilus Agada, the NDC Director of New Media and Strategic Communications, shared the party’s stance in a statement on Wednesday in Abuja. He stated, “The 10 names published by INEC neither emerged from the party’s nomination process nor its appeal process.”

Agada added, “The NDC uploaded only candidates who emerged from our appeal process, but the commission rejected the names approved by the party and subsequently published persons unknown to us.”

The candidates disowned by the party include Umennaajiego Ezenwa (Onitsha South 1), Akpotue Chibuike (Onitsha South II), Nwankwo Chiemerie (Orumba North), Maduagwu Eric K. (Anaocha I), Ngoebisi Obinna (Idemili North), and Isintume Charles (Njikoka I).

Others are Nwachukwu Nonso (Nnewi South I), Okeke Akunne (Nnewi South II), Nnonyelu Samson E. (Ayamelum), and Azotani Francis (Dunukofia).

The party emphasized that the process for nominating candidates is clear. Political parties are responsible for submitting their candidates’ names and details before INEC processes and publishes them. “It is the party’s legal responsibility to submit the names and credentials of its nominated candidates,” the statement said.

“The NDC did not collect or forward completed EC9E forms for the 10 persons whose names later appeared on INEC’s published list.”

Agada questioned how INEC got the credentials of the candidates. He asked, “How did the commission obtain their credentials when it is the party’s legal duty to submit the names of its approved candidates?”

This latest issue comes days after the NDC threatened to take legal action against INEC. They accused INEC of replacing their nominated candidates for the 2027 State Houses of Assembly elections with what they called “strange names” unknown to the party.

The NDC specifically accused INEC of publishing unauthorized names as its candidates in various constituencies, especially in Anambra State. They claimed this was part of a larger plan to confuse and create issues within opposition parties ahead of the 2027 general elections.

Senator Moses Cleopas, the National Chairman of the party, raised the alarm in a statement on Sunday in Abuja. Cleopas said the party found several names published by INEC as candidates for the Anambra State House of Assembly. According to him, these names were neither nominated nor submitted by the NDC.

He noted that this situation is crucial since Anambra is the home state of the party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi. After the claims, INEC started checking its records to see how names not known to the NDC appeared on the party’s candidate list for the 2027 elections.

INEC, however, denied the claim that it replaced candidates nominated by the party with people unknown to it. INEC’s Chief Press Secretary and Media Adviser to the INEC Chairman, Adedayo Oketola, told The PUNCH on Monday that the commission cannot nominate candidates for political parties or substitute validly nominated candidates with its preferred individuals.