NDC Alleges INEC Slipped 'Strange Names' Into Its 2027 Candidate List

ABUJA — The Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission of stripping some of its authentic nominees off its 2027 candidate list and replacing them with names the party says it never submitted.

National Chairman Senator Moses Cleopas Zuwoghe made the allegation in a statement issued Sunday, reacting to INEC's publication of candidates for the 2027 State Houses of Assembly elections. He said the names that appeared on the commission's list, particularly for constituencies in Anambra State, home turf of the party's presidential candidate, Peter Obi, pointed to a deliberate attempt to weaken the NDC and sow confusion among its supporters.

According to Cleopas, nine persons whose nomination was never authorised by the party turned up as its candidates across various Anambra constituencies. He is asking the INEC chairman to investigate immediately and trace how those names found their way onto the commission's portal, while urging the probe to be extended to Benue and Imo, where he claims a similar pattern was observed.

He said the situation has embarrassed the party, its leadership, and its genuine candidates, and has stirred disaffection among NDC supporters both at home and in the diaspora.

The party listed the following names as those it says were wrongly published as its candidates in Anambra:

- Onitsha South 1 — Umennaajiego Jude Ezenwa

- Onitsha South 2 — Akpotue Obinna Chibuike

- Orumba North — Nwankwo Chiemerie

- Anaocha 1 — Maduagwu Eric K

- Idemili North — Ngoebisi Obinna

- Njikoka 1 — Isintume Charles

- Nnewi South — Nwachukwu Nonso

- Nnewi South 2 — Okeke Ifeanyi Akunne

- Ayamelum — Nnonyelu Samson E

- Dunukofia — Azotani Chuks Francis

"Our Own Investigation Points to INEC's Complicity"

Cleopas said the NDC is conducting its own parallel investigation, and preliminary findings already suggest INEC officials had a hand in foisting the disputed names on the party.

"We, as a party, are also carrying out our own independent investigation, the preliminary findings of which are already pointing to the complicity of INEC officials in foisting names purporting to be our candidates, but who are not from us," he said, adding that the party believes the upload process was weaponised to intimidate and embarrass the NDC.

He walked through how the dispute began. After the party concluded its primaries and appeals, stakeholders from Anambra, party leadership, representatives of Obi, and the appeals panel signed off on a final candidate list, which was then uploaded to the INEC portal using the code assigned to the party.

Cleopas alleged that INEC subsequently marked nine of those names as "Pending," insisting the commission's own monitoring officials had already logged different names in the system. When the NDC formally disputed this and submitted the identities of its actual nominees, INEC allegedly refused to make the correction.

He went further, claiming INEC bypassed the party entirely by collecting Form EC-9 directly from the disputed individuals and uploading the forms without routing them through the NDC.

"To further confirm that there was a predetermined effort on the part of INEC to impose the said nine candidates on the party, and embarrass both NDC and Mr. Peter Obi, INEC went behind the NDC to collect the Form EC-9 directly from the candidates, bypassing the party, and uploading same," he alleged.

"They Should Have Left the Slots Vacant"

Cleopas argued that whenever a discrepancy arises between the names a party submits and what INEC's monitoring team records, the commission's proper course should be to leave the affected slots vacant pending clarification, not publish candidates the party insists it never nominated.

"At the very worst, INEC could have left us with no candidates for those positions, if they knew they were unwilling to engage us in addressing any perceived anomaly," he said.

He accused INEC of running a broader pattern where opposition parties are blocked from uploading their preferred candidates while unfamiliar names get slipped into their lists instead. The NDC, he vowed, will pursue every available legal channel to have its authentic candidates restored.

"We are moving to approach the court of competent jurisdiction to seek redress and restore our authentic candidates. The general public and our millions of supporters should note that these are not our candidates," he said.