The Independent National Electoral Commission has denied claims that a factional leader of the African Democratic Congress obtained an INEC access code and used it to upload his party’s candidates for the 2027 general election.
Nafiu Bala Gombe, who parades himself as national chairman of the ADC, said in a statement on Monday that his faction had completed the upload of its presidential, vice presidential and National Assembly candidates through the INEC access code granted to his camp.
According to Gombe, his faction named Professor Chris Uba, a 71 year old academic from Anambra State, as its presidential candidate. Doctor Shamsuddeen Modibbo Barkindo of Adamawa State was named as running mate.
A senior INEC official told LEADERSHIP newspaper that the commission only grants portal access to party executives whose names appear on its official records. The official said he was hearing Gombe’s claim for the first time and urged the public to check INEC’s portal for the recognised leadership of any party.
Legal analysts say the dispute may ultimately hinge on whether any valid INEC access code was issued before the commission formally recognised a leadership structure within the party.
The ADC’s national leadership, headed by former Senate President David Mark, dismissed Gombe’s claim as a blatant lie. National Publicity Secretary Bolaji Abdullahi said an INEC access code cannot be issued to a leadership the commission does not recognise, and that the commission cannot issue two separate codes to the same party.
Abdullahi said the controversy would be resolved quickly if INEC clarified which party officials, if any, had been issued an INEC access code for the nomination process.
Abdullahi challenged Gombe to produce evidence of the alleged upload. He asked the commission to investigate what he described as forgery and unauthorised use of documents purportedly issued by INEC.
Presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar’s media office also weighed in, accusing INEC of unlawfully granting an INEC access code to Gombe’s faction despite validating Mark’s executive. The office described Gombe as a pretender to the ADC chairmanship and insisted candidates submitted through his faction hold no legal standing.
The dispute follows months of leadership wrangling inside the ADC. Gombe, a former deputy national chairman, has challenged the emergence of Mark’s leadership before the Federal High Court in Abuja since September 2025.
The Court of Appeal dismissed Mark’s jurisdictional challenge on 12 March, a ruling that strengthened Gombe’s procedural standing without settling the leadership question. INEC responded on 1 April by suspending recognition of both factions and removing Mark and former Osun State governor Rauf Aregbesola from its portal pending the outcome of the court case.
That posture makes Gombe’s claim of a completed portal upload difficult to reconcile with the commission’s own position. INEC has not published an official statement confirming or denying whether any access code was issued to either camp, though the senior official’s remarks to LEADERSHIP amount to a denial that Gombe’s faction holds recognised status.
The commission had earlier granted an INEC access code to the Peoples Democratic Party structure, whose national publicity secretary confirmed the party had begun uploading candidate details for 2027. That earlier episode drew scrutiny after the PDP camp aligned with Federal Capital Territory Minister Nyesom Wike secured recognition ahead of a rival faction, a pattern opposition figures now cite when questioning how INEC allocates access.
The nomination window is governed by Section 29 of the Electoral Act, which requires parties to submit candidate details within a fixed period ahead of the 2027 polls. Any party found to have breached that timeline, or to have submitted candidates through an unrecognised structure, risks having its nominees excluded from the final register.
For the ADC, the standoff carries wider consequences. A party split into rival camps at the point of candidate submission risks losing its slot on the ballot altogether if INEC cannot determine which faction speaks for it before the deadline closes.
INEC has said it will publish the full list of parties and candidates that successfully complete the nomination exercise once the process closes. Until then, the question of which ADC faction genuinely holds a valid INEC access code remains unresolved.
