The media office of the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) for the 2027 election, Atiku Abubakar, has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of partisanship over the ongoing leadership dispute within the party.
In a statement issued on Monday, July 13, the Atiku Media Office questioned INEC’s alleged role in allowing a rival ADC faction led by Nafiu Bala Gombe to upload the names of its candidates to the commission’s nomination portal.
According to the statement, Bala, who claims to be the National Chairman of the ADC, announced on July 11 that his faction had successfully uploaded its presidential, vice-presidential and National Assembly candidates ahead of the 2027 general election.
The media office argued that access to the INEC nomination portal is only granted to recognised political party leadership and described the development as inconsistent with the commission’s own guidelines.
“Meanwhile, INEC has been mum, and has not denied or confirmed this obvious contradiction to the law and its own guidelines,” the statement said.
The Atiku campaign alleged that by granting an access code to Bala Gombe, whom it described as “a pretender,” INEC had acted contrary to its earlier recognition of the Senator David Mark-led National Executive Committee of the ADC.
“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 said.
The media office further criticised INEC’s Director of Election and Party Monitoring, Professor Joash Amupitan, accusing him of undermining opposition parties.
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“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 alleged.
The campaign also argued that the rival faction did not conduct valid party primaries as required by the Constitution and the Electoral Act.
“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.”
It maintained that only the candidates submitted by the David Mark-led leadership are legally valid.
“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.
The statement concluded by urging the commission to stop interfering in the affairs of opposition parties.
“Prof Joash Amupitan should quit formenting crisis in the ADC and the other opposition parties and by so doing helping President Bola Tinubu’s agenda of total state capture.”
INEC has not publicly responded to the allegations. The commission had earlier extended the deadline for political parties to upload the names of their presidential and National Assembly candidates to July 14, 2026.