KEY TAKEAWAYS
- The Independent National Electoral Commission rejected the Kabiru Turaki-led PDP faction’s claim it submitted a 2027 candidate list naming former President Goodluck Jonathan as presidential flagbearer.
- INEC’s Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Mrs Victoria Ita-Messi, said parties must upload candidates on INEC’s portal, and manual submission violates procedure.
- The Turaki-led faction, through its National Publicity Secretary, Ini Ememobong, insisted manual submission followed the Electoral Act 2026 and accused INEC of siding in PDP’s crisis.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has dismissed the claim by the Kabiru Turaki-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that it manually submitted its list of candidates for the 2027 general elections, including former President Goodluck Jonathan as its presidential candidate.
The commission said political parties are required to submit the names of their candidates through INEC’s designated electronic portal, raising questions over the faction’s claim that it was denied access codes and subsequently resorted to manual submission.
INEC’s Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Victoria Ita-Messi, stated this in an interview with Leadership in Abuja on Friday while responding to the faction’s claims.
She, however, said she could not confirm whether the faction had submitted any list of candidates to the commission but clarified that the manual submission is a violation of established processes.
“I am not in a position to confirm that to you, but can only tell you that there are procedures for submitting the names of political parties’ candidates to the INEC portal,” Ita-Messi said.
She also questioned the basis of the faction’s claim that it had successfully submitted its candidates after alleging it was denied access to the commission’s electronic platform.
“If the faction claimed that they were denied access to the code, how did they submit the list of their candidates to the commission?” she asked.
This online medium reports that INEC’s reaction followed a press conference held by the Turaki-led faction in Abuja on Thursday, where it announced that it had submitted its list of candidates for the 2027 elections to INEC.
The faction claimed the list contained the names of former President Goodluck Jonathan as its presidential candidate, as well as governorship and National Assembly candidates.
It alleged that INEC denied it the access codes required to upload its candidates on the commission’s electronic submission platform but said it subsequently submitted the list manually.
The faction’s National Publicity Secretary, Ini Ememobong, maintained that the manual submission complied with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2026.
The faction said it adopted the manual submission process after the commission allegedly refused to grant it access to the electronic platform.
Ememobong also accused INEC of taking sides in the PDP leadership crisis, alleging that the electoral body had failed to remain neutral and had ignored relevant facts and judicial decisions relating to the party’s leadership dispute.
