…Says, Commission aiding, abetting Tinubu’s agenda
Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission ((INEC) of once again manifesting its partisanship.
Atiku, who made the accusation on Monday, July 13, 2026, noted that on July 11, 2026, Nafiu Bala Gombe, who parades himself as National Chairman of the ADC issued a statement that he has succeeded in uploading the names of his candidates on the portal of the INEC.
The former Vice President declared that INEC granting of access code to Nafiu Bala Gombe is unconstitutional and unlawful.
He insisted that the only submitted candidates known to the law are those of David Mark, stressing that any parallel submission such as Nafiu Bala Gombe’s is null and void.
These were contained in a statement by the Atiku Media Office in which it noted that the uploading of the names of candidates on INEC portal is part of the process of the 2027 General Elections made possible by the granting of access codes to political parties in line with the Electoral Commission’s guidelines.
The statement pointedly accused INEC of keeping mum over the development, thus has not denied or confirmed the obvious contradiction to the law and its own guidelines.
According to the statement; “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 Senator David Mark-led exco, the electoral umpire is once again manifesting its partisanship.
“This was the same thing that the Prof Joash Amupitan-led INEC did when it illegally removed the names of the duly recognised ADC exco following the judicial rascality of Justice Lifu in ignoring a superior ruling of an appellate court.
“The so-called successful uploading of candidates by Nafiu Bala Gombe is neither grounded in law or supported by INEC’s own guidelines.
“Nafiu Bala Gombe is not recognised as ADC Chairman. Mark is duly recognised. Can there be two recognised Chairmen of a political party? Possibly only in an INEC led by Amupitan. Can INEC grant two access codes to a political party? Certainly not.
“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 a crisis even where none exists,” it stated.
Atiku therefore reminded 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.
“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,” he said.
