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ADC Raises Alarm over INEC’s Plot to Prevent Party from Fielding Candidates
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has revealed the deliberate administrative landmines being deployed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to prevent the Party from fielding candidates in the upcoming elections.
In a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the party stated that at the heart of this emerging crisis is INEC’s stated position that it will no longer receive any correspondence from the ADC pending the determination of a matter before the Federal High Court. On its face, this may appear procedural. In reality, it creates a direct and dangerous conflict with the clear timelines imposed by the Electoral Act (2026), which provides defined windows, including the mandatory 21-day notice period and subsequent submission requirements, within which political parties must complete critical electoral processes.
The full statement reads:
We are compelled to raise serious concerns about a developing situation that appears designed to prevent the African Democratic Congress (ADC) from fielding candidates in the upcoming elections. It is based on documentary evidence which we are now placing before the Nigerian public, including certified INEC records, attendance logs, monitoring reports, and excerpts from the Commission’s own sworn affidavit. Taken together, these documents establish a clear and consistent record of events.
INEC received formal notice of the July 29, 2025 National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the ADC. It deployed officials to monitor that meeting. It documented the proceedings and received formal reports from its field officers. Following this, INEC updated its internal records and uploaded the names of the new leadership, including Senator David Mark as National Chairman and Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola as National Secretary.
These are not claims. They are facts contained in INEC’s own records.
In addition, the Commission’s sworn affidavit before the Federal High Court, in its response to Nafiu Bala Gombe on 12 September 2025, particularly in Clauses 14 to 19, affirms key legal principles: that the leadership transition had already been completed and recognized, that such internal party matters fall outside the scope of judicial interference, that completed acts cannot be reversed by injunction, and also recognizes the David Mark-led NWC.
Yet, despite this clear documentary trail, INEC has now taken the position that it will no longer receive any correspondence from the ADC pending the determination of a matter before the Federal High Court. This is where the contradiction becomes dangerous.
The Electoral Act imposes strict timelines on political parties, including the 21-day notice requirement and submission deadlines. INEC itself has fixed May 10 as the deadline for the submission of relevant documents. However, by refusing to receive communication from the ADC within this same period, the Commission is effectively preventing the Party from complying with the law.
In simple terms, INEC is effectively threatening that unless the courts deliver judgment on the ADC leadership issue by May 10, it will prevent the ADC from producing candidates.
This places the ADC in an impossible position and creates a clear pathway to artificial non-compliance, which can then be used to justify excluding the Party from fielding candidates. That is the landmine.
INEC has claimed that its April 1 decision was taken to avoid rendering the proceedings before the Federal High Court nugatory. The reality is the opposite. By intervening in a matter already before the court and issuing a pronouncement with clear legal and operational consequences, the Commission has itself undermined the very process it claims to protect.
What is even more concerning is that this position contradicts INEC’s own prior conduct and legal stance. The same Commission that monitored, documented, recognized, and swore to an affidavit confirming the ADC leadership is now acting in a way that contradicts its earlier position.
We therefore call on the Commission to immediately reverse this position, resume the acceptance of all lawful correspondence from the ADC, and uphold its constitutional responsibility to ensure a level playing field for all political parties.
We also call on Nigerians to be wary and remain vigilant about these dangerous machinations to subvert Nigeria’s democracy and impose a civilian dictatorship on the country.
The Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, has thrown the 2027 race wide open by zoning
its presidential ticket to the South for a single four-year term, a move that instantly puts Peter Obi and other southern aspirants in play.
The decision came at the party’s national convention on Saturday after a motion by Rep. Afam Victor Ogene of Anambra’s Ogbaru constituency. Delegates adopted it without dissent.
Under the arrangement, the South gets the ticket for 2027 only. Once that four-year term ends, the ticket automatically shifts back to the North.
The zoning formula settles months of backroom jostling inside the NDC over where the party should field its standard-bearer. By locking the North into a wait-and-hold position, the convention has effectively cleared the runway for southern heavyweights to move.
For Obi, the former Anambra governor who ran in 2023, the resolution removes the biggest structural hurdle to picking up the NDC’s form. Other southern aspirants now have the same green light to purchase and process nomination forms.
Party leaders framed the deal as a balance between regional equity and political strategy ahead of 2027. Critics inside the party will watch whether the “automatic” handoff to the North holds once the race gets hot.
For now, the South has its window. The question is who walks through it first.
The Senate has amended its Standing Orders, limiting eligibility to contest for its presiding officers and principal officers to only members of the 10th Senate.
In the new rules, a senator shall only qualify to contest for Senate Presidency and Deputy Senate Presidency if he/she has won election to the Senate for at least one term of four years.
To be eligible to contest for any principal office, a senator must have won election for two consecutive periods, the last one must immediately precede the inauguration of the next Senate.
By implication, any senator who plans to vie to become a presiding officer in the 11th Senate (2027-20231) must have been a senator for at least one term preceding the inauguration.
For principal offices (chief whip, deputy whip, minority whip, etc), the senator must have been a member of the current 10th Senate, or they are not eligible to contest.
Under the new provision on “qualification of presiding officers”, it is stated in Order 3,”A Senator vying for the Office of the President of the Senate and the Deputy President of the Senate must have served at least one term of four (4) years in the Senate as a senator of the Federal Republic.”
Similarly, nomination for the positions shall strictly follow ranking in the following order: former president of the Senate; former deputy president of the Senate; former principal officers of the Senate; senators who had served for at least one term of four (4) years; and senators who had been members of the House of Representatives.
According to the provision, it is only the absence of the above that a first-term senator can be nominated to contest for the positions of presiding officers.
Under Order 5, a senator seeking to be a principal officer must have “served as a senator for at least two consecutive terms immediately preceding such nomination. “
The Senate passed the rules after a lengthy executive session presided over by the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, on Tuesday.
The new rules impliedly gives Akpabio, other former presiding officers, principal officers and ranked senators the right of first refusal.
Findings indicated that the new rules might be what some sources described as “self-serving” or designed to serve the interest of the present presiding officers and members of the 10th Senate.
For instance, some State governors contesting the 2027 election to the Senate in the hope of vying for the presidency of the Senate, are effectively barred by the new rules.
It was also learnt that even within the Senate, the new rules will stop some senators from vying to become principal officers as they would not have attained two consecutive terms prior to 2027.
The National Publicity Secretary of African Democratic Congress (ADC), Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, has claimed that the party favoured Peter Obi more than any other aspirant while with them.
Abdullahi said this while faulting Obi’s claim that internal wrangling was part of the reason he defected to the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC).
Featuring on Arise Television’s Prime Time, Abdullahi said Obi and Kwankwaso’s defection means a lot because they are significant politicians.
He said: “I will be lying to say that their defection didn’t mean anything because these are two significant frontline politicians in this country and when you lose those two politicians then you will fill that you have lost something.
“But it’s not a mortal blow because what we are trying to do is to build a broad based coalition that would include everyone.
“The reason we are building this coalition is because our individual parties have been destabilized and the only way out was to come together.
“There was a consensus among us that the direction this country is going was quite precarious and the only way we can win election and rescue the country from the misrule of the APC is to build a party that is formidable enough.
“Obi and Kwankwaso have a different political idea of what the party should be doing.
“Obi said himself that once we present two candidates against President Tinubu, we have given him a chance. I wonder what has changed.
“So if the legal challenges are the reason that we have left after creating the impression that ADC is drowning in these mountains of legal challenges, the answer is no.
“At the moment, we have only three cases which are flimsy without trying to be prejudicial, as the National Publicity Secretary of ADC.
“I can tell you that none of the aspirants and leaders have been favoured like Peter Obi.”
