The Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) rejected ten candidates named by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the 2027 Anambra State House of Assembly elections, claiming that it neither nominated nor filed the Form EC9E paperwork.
The party also sought an instant electronic audit of INEC’s nomination portal to discover how the candidates’ names and credentials were purportedly entered into the commission’s system.
Theophilus Agada, NDC Director of New Media and Strategic Communications, revealed the party’s position in a statement made in Abuja on Wednesday.
He said, “The 10 names published by INEC neither emerged from the party’s nomination process nor its appeal process.
“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 stated that the process of nominating candidates was clearly specified, with political parties responsible for submitting their candidates’ names and details before INEC processed and published 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 the commission received the credentials of the impacted individuals.
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 comes days after the NDC threatened to sue INEC over allegations that candidates nominated by the party for the 2027 State Houses of Assembly elections were replaced with persons it described as “strange names” unknown to the party.
The NDC had accused the commission of publishing unauthorized names as its candidates in several constituencies, particularly in Anambra State, and alleged that the development was part of a wider pattern aimed at creating confusion and internal disaffection within opposition parties ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Senator Moses Cleopas, the National Chairman of the party, raised the alarm in a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday.
He stated that the party had identified several names published by INEC as candidates for the Anambra State House of Assembly that were not nominated or submitted by the NDC.
He further noted that the development is significant because Anambra is the home state of the party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi.
Following the claims, INEC launched an investigation into its records to investigate how persons apparently unknown to the NDC landed on the party’s candidate list for the 2027 elections.
The commission, on the other hand, dismissed allegations that it substituted party-nominated candidates with unknown individuals.
INEC’s Chief Press Secretary and Media Adviser to the INEC Chairman, Adedayo Oketola, had told the press on Monday that the commission had no legal authority to nominate candidates for political parties or substitute candidates validly nominated by political parties with its preferred persons.
