The African Democratic Congress, ADC, and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, are pushing back against fresh allegations that a rival faction uploaded candidates’ names to the commission’s nomination portal ahead of the 2027 general election.
ADC insists that only its David Mark-led leadership is recognised by INEC and that no rival group has any legal or technical access to submit candidates on the commission’s portal.
The dispute began after reports that a faction led by Nafiu Bala Gombe had uploaded the names of a presidential candidate and other nominees to the INEC nomination portal, allegedly using access codes granted by the commission.
In response, the ADC described the story as a blatant lie and said it was quite easy to verify why.
In a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, the party said INEC does not issue nomination portal access or nomination codes to a leadership it does not recognise.
It added that the Commission will not issue two codes to the same party, pointing out that this restriction protects parties from impostors posing as legitimate leaders.
Abdullahi argued that if INEC were to hand out multiple codes for a single party, every impostor would simply upload names to the portal and proclaim themselves the authentic leadership of a political party.
He said that plainly not how the law or the Commission’s processes work, and challenged Nafiu Bala Gombe and his allies to produce verifiable proof of their reported upload.
According to the ADC, the question, therefore, is straightforward: where is the evidence of this purported upload by a group of individuals not known by law or the electoral body?
The party stressed that, as far as its records and INEC’s portal show, only the Senator David Mark-led National Executive Committee with former Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola as National Secretary is recognised as the authentic national leadership.
ADC also accused the rival group of what appears to be the forgery and unauthorised use of documents purportedly emanating from the Commission in a manner capable of creating confusion and undermining public confidence in its integrity and reputation as Nigeria’s electoral umpire.
By this statement, the party said it was formally drawing INEC’s attention to the issue and calling for a thorough inquiry into any document or portal activity linked to the Gombe group.
INEC Rejects Allegations Against Amupitan
The controversy widened when former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s Media Office alleged that INEC had granted the African Democratic Congress’ rival faction led by Nafiu Gombe access codes to upload candidates’ names to its nomination portal.
Atiku’s camp further alleged that INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, was fuelling internal crises within opposition parties and working to advance President Bola Tinubu’s political interests ahead of the 2027 general election.
Reacting, a senior INEC official, speaking anonymously, denied that the commission had given Gombe or his associates any candidate nomination access codes.
The official explained that INEC operates based on the legal framework guiding elections and the electoral system in Nigeria, citing the 1999 Constitution, the Electoral Act, and INEC’s own guidelines and regulations as the commission’s reference points.
On ADC’s leadership, the official said that based on that, the recognised leadership of ADC, according to our records, is that of the Senator David Mark-led leadership, and added that if you go to our portal right now, Senator David Mark is the chairman of the ADC, while Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola is the Secretary.
He insisted that according to records, INEC did not give Nafiu Gombe access codes, and that the commission was not really interested in political claims that do not align with its official data.
The official explained that it was as good as saying that Nafiu Gombe cannot upload the names of candidates on the INEC portal because he is not the officially recognised chairman of the ADC, adding that Gombe, or any of his agents, aides or close allies did not get any access codes from INEC to upload names of candidates.
He went further to ask, In fact, the question is which portal did they upload the names? INEC does not recognise anything from Nafiu Gombe.
On the accusations against Prof. Amupitan, the official said the allegation by Atiku’s Media Office that Amupitan is trying to weaken opposition parties is a baseless allegation.
He described the attempt to drag Amupitan into political parties’ internal crisis as an exercise in futility, arguing that Amupitan did not go to court. Amupitan did not drag Nafiu Gombe to court and Amupitan did not drag the David Mark-led ADC to court; it’s a party crisis, so why are they trying to drag Amupitan into it?
The official maintained that the allegations are baseless and advised opposition politicians that they should rather focus on strengthening their party than blaming Amupitan for their problems.
He concluded by restating that as I earlier mentioned, Nafiu Gombe is not officially recognised and cannot have access to upload the names of candidates on INEC’s portal.
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