By Eshioromeh Sebastian
Former Vice President and presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of aiding President Bola Tinubu’s agenda to disenfranchise opposition parties by granting a rival faction access to its nomination portal.
Atiku made the allegation in a statement issued by his Media Adviser, Paul Ibe, on Monday, following claims by a faction led by Nafiu Bala Gombe that it had successfully uploaded the names of its presidential, vice-presidential, and National Assembly candidates to the INEC portal for the 2027 general elections.
The Atiku Media Office alleged that by granting an access code to Gombe, whom it described as a “pretender” to the ADC national chairmanship, INEC had acted contrary to the law and its own earlier recognition of the Senator David Mark-led executive of the party .
“By granting access code to Bala Gombe, a pretender, laying claims to the chairmanship of the ADC, though the law is not on his side and INEC has since validated the chairmanship of the Sen. David Mark-led exco, the electoral umpire is once again manifesting its partisanship,” the statement read .
Atiku’s camp argued that INEC cannot issue two access codes to the same party, questioning whether the Commission could possibly recognise two different chairmen of a political party.
The former vice president specifically targeted INEC Chairman Prof. Joash Amupitan, alleging he was appointed to weaken opposition parties by creating crises where none exist.
“What INEC has done is a recipe for crisis and confirms that Prof Joash Amupitan was appointed to enable the weakening of the opposition parties by creating crisis even where none exists,” the statement said.
Atiku also referenced a previous incident when the Amupitan-led INEC allegedly removed the names of the duly recognised ADC executive following what he described as “judicial rascality” by Justice Lifu, who ignored a superior ruling of an appellate court.
Citing constitutional and electoral provisions, Atiku maintained that only candidates produced through the David Mark-led leadership of the ADC are valid under Nigerian law .
“We wish to remind Prof Joash Amupitan’s INEC that Section 222 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) provides that candidates of a political party must emerge through recognised party primaries supervised by INEC,” the statement read .
The statement also cited Section 84 of the Electoral Act, 2022 (as amended), which stipulates that political parties must conduct primaries and submit only one validly nominated candidate per elective office to INEC .
“Nafiu Bala Gombe and his criminal gang did not conduct any primaries,” the statement added, insisting that any parallel submission by Gombe is “null and void” .
ADC Leadership Responds
Meanwhile, the ADC leadership, through its National Publicity Secretary Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, dismissed the Gombe faction’s claim as a “blatant lie” and called on INEC to investigate what it described as the apparent forgery and unauthorised use of documents purportedly issued by the Commission.
The party maintained that INEC does not issue nomination portal access or codes to a leadership it does not recognise, and that the Commission cannot issue two codes to the same party.
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