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🇳🇬 Nigeria /Elections & Politics

NDC disowns 10 Anambra candidates on INEC portal

From The Punch · () English

Summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources In the courts
  • The Nigeria Democratic Congress disowned 10 candidates listed by INEC for the 2027 Anambra State House of Assembly elections.
  • The party said it neither nominated the candidates nor submitted their Form EC9E documents and demanded an electronic audit of INEC’s nomination portal.
  • The dispute follows the NDC’s threat to sue INEC over alleged replacement of its approved candidates.

The Nigeria Democratic Congress says 10 people listed by Nigeria’s electoral commission as its candidates in Anambra were never nominated by the party.

The 10 names published by INEC neither emerged from the party’s nomination process nor its appeal process.

— Theophilus AgadaThe NDC communications director rejected the candidates listed by INEC.

The NDC said it submitted candidates who emerged from its nomination and appeal processes, but INEC rejected those names and published people unknown to the party instead. It demanded an immediate electronic audit of the commission’s nomination portal to establish how the names and credentials entered the system.

The disowned candidates include Umennaajiego Ezenwa in Onitsha South 1, Akpotue Chibuike in Onitsha South II, Nwankwo Chiemerie in Orumba North, Maduagwu Eric K. in Anaocha I, Ngoebisi Obinna in Idemili North and Isintume Charles in Njikoka I. The other names are Nwachukwu Nonso, Okeke Akunne, Nnonyelu Samson E. and Azotani Francis, listed in constituencies including Nnewi South, Ayamelum and Dunukofia.

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.

— Theophilus AgadaHe described the alleged replacement of the party’s approved nominees.

The party said political parties have the legal responsibility to submit candidates’ names and credentials before INEC processes and publishes them. “The NDC did not collect or forward completed EC9E forms for the 10 persons whose names later appeared on INEC’s published list,” its communications director, Theophilus Agada, said.

It is the party’s legal responsibility to submit the names and credentials of its nominated candidates.

— Theophilus AgadaThe NDC cited the legal process governing candidate submissions.

The dispute comes days after the NDC threatened legal action against INEC. The party has accused the commission of publishing unauthorized names in several constituencies, particularly in Anambra, and called the alleged substitutions part of a wider pattern creating confusion and internal divisions in opposition parties before the 2027 general elections.

How did the commission obtain their credentials when it is the party’s legal duty to submit the names of its approved candidates?

— Theophilus AgadaHe questioned how the disputed candidates’ documents reached the electoral commission.
About this summary

Originally published by The Punch. Summarized and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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