The Independent National Electoral Commission has rejected allegations by the Nigeria Democratic Congress that it removed the party’s nominated candidates from some State House of Assembly constituencies in Anambra and Benue states and replaced them with unauthorised names.
INEC said its records showed that the disputed candidates were listed on Form EC9E submitted to the commission and duly signed by the NDC National Chairman and National Secretary.
Earlier, INEC’s Chief Press Secretary and Media Adviser to the INEC Chairman, Adedayo Oketola, had said the commission would rely on its electronic and documentary records to establish what happened, stressing that “It is, therefore, possible to establish objectively the history and source of entries relating to any candidate whose name appears on the portal,” Oketola said.
Reaffirming its position on, the commission made the clarification in a statement issued on Tuesday by the Chairman of its Information and Voter Education Committee, Mohammed Kudu Haruna.
“As a matter of fact, the Commission has in its possession, Form EC9E where these candidates were listed and submitted to the Commission duly signed by the National Chairman and the National Secretary of the party,” the statement said.
INEC said candidate nomination was the responsibility of political parties and that it had no legal authority to choose, insert or substitute candidates for any party.
“Candidate nomination is, by law, the exclusive responsibility of political parties. INEC has no legal authority to select, insert, or substitute a candidate for any party,” it said.
The commission also distinguished its statutory role of monitoring party primaries from the nomination of candidates, saying oversight of a primary did not give it the power to impose a candidate on a political party.
“Monitoring a party’s primary is a statutory oversight function only and confers no power on INEC to choose or impose a candidate,” INEC said.
The commission said that ahead of the 2027 general elections, all 22 registered political parties had designated two technically trained officers to handle their candidate nomination processes following training organised by INEC.
It said portal access codes were thereafter issued directly and in person to the national chairmen of the parties.
“Ahead of the 2027 election, all 22 registered parties designated two technically trained officers to handle their nomination process, following training organised by the Commission. Thereafter, the portal access codes were issued directly and in person to each party’s National Chairman, and not by proxy,” the statement said.
According to INEC, candidate lists were generated from submissions made by the parties and jointly signed by their national chairmen and national secretaries in the Form EC9 series.
“List of candidates were generated for each party as submitted by the party jointly signed by the National Chairmen and National Secretaries of the party, making the submission in Form EC9 series (A-G),” it said.
The commission consequently rejected the allegation that it independently uploaded or altered the NDC’s candidate information.
“Therefore any claim that the Commission independently uploaded or altered candidate information is unfounded and untrue,” INEC said.
The development followed allegations by the NDC that names of candidates it neither nominated nor authorised had been uploaded and published as its candidates for some State House of Assembly constituencies.
In a report published earlier on, the NDC alleged that INEC had removed candidates nominated by the party and replaced them with names unknown to it.
The party identified several constituencies in Anambra State and said it had observed a similar pattern in other states.
The party’s National Chairman, Moses Cleopas, had called on the INEC chairman to investigate how the disputed names appeared on its candidate list.
“We call on the INEC chairman to urgently and immediately cause an investigation into the matter and unravel how this came to be,” the NDC said.
The party also alleged that the issue extended beyond Anambra to constituencies in Benue and Imo states.
INEC said it remained committed to transparency and accountability in the electoral process.
“The Commission remains committed to transparency, accountability and providing a level playing field for all stakeholders in the electoral process,” the statement said.
Source: punchng.com
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