Citizenship News
The Atiku Abubakar Media office in Abuja has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, of allegedly aiding the disenfranchisement of opposition political parties, including the African Democratic Congress, ADC, to which Atiku belong.
This is according to a statement, Monday, signed by the Atiku Media Office in Abuja.
“On 11 July 2026, Nafiu Bala Gombe who parades himself as National Chairman of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) issued a statement that he has succeeded in uploading the names of his candidates on the portal of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)”, the statement said.
The statement added: “The uploading of the names of candidates on INEC portal is part of the process of the 2027 General Elections made possible by the granting of access codes to political parties in line with the umpire’s guidelines.
“Meanwhile, INEC has been mum, and has not denied or confirmed this obvious contradiction to the law and its own guidelines.
It said that by granting access code to Bala Gombe who claims the chairmanship of the ADC, though the law is not on his side and INEC, the electoral commission is not being fair to the opposition, which suggests that the electoral umpire is “once again, allegedly manifesting its partisanship.”
Atiku alleges that this was the same thing that the Prof Joash Amupitan-led INEC did when it illegally removed the names of the duly recognised ADC exco following a judicial pronouncement by ignoring a superior ruling of an appellate court.
“The so-called “successful” uploading of “candidates” by Nafiu Bala Gombe is neither grounded in law nor supported by INEC’s own guidelines.
“Nafiu Bala Gombe is not recognised as ADC Chairman. Mark is duly recognised. Can there be two recognised Chairmen of a political party? Possibly only in an INEC led by Amupitan. Can INEC grant two access codes to a political party? Certainly not.
“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 a crisis even where none exists.
“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 recognized party primaries supervised by INEC. Section 84 of the Electoral Act, 2022 (as amended) 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 INEC granting of access code to Nafiu Bala Gombe is unconstitutional and unlawful. The only submitted candidates known to the law are those of David Mark. Any parallel submission such as Nafiu Bala Gombe’s is null and void.”
