The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has excluded the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidates in Gombe, Isa Pantami, and in Ogun State, Ladi Adebutu, from its final list of candidates for the 6 February 2027 governorship elections.
However, the fee listed Kingsley Chinda because the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in Rivers State.
Mr Chinda, a member of the House of Representatives, is an ally of Nyesom Wike, a PDP member serving in the APC-led federal authorities.
INEC’s final lists, printed on Saturday, included 16 governorship candidates for Gombe State and 13 for Ogun State, with no PDP candidate.
According to the list, Abia State has 17 candidates, Adamawa (18), Akwa Ibom (20), Bauchi (15), Benue (12), Borno (13), Cross River (8), Delta (18), Ebonyi (12), Enugu (16), Jigawa (13), Kaduna (16), Kano (17), and Katsina (11).
Others are Kebbi (14), Kwara (12), Lagos (16), Nasarawa (13), Niger (15), Oyo (16), Plateau (15), Rivers (17), Sokoto (17), Taraba (12), Yobe (13), and Zamfara (15).
Eight different states maintain off-cycle elections at completely different instances. They are Kogi, Ekiti, Ondo, Imo, Osun, Edo, Bayelsa, Ondo and Anambra.
Among different candidates cleared by the electoral physique are Governors Alex Otti (LP, Abia), Umaru Bago (APC, Niger), Caleb Muftwang (Plateau), Umo Eno (APC, Akwa Ibom), Kabir Yusuf (Kano), Hyacinth Alia (APC, Benue), Nasir Idris (APC, Kebbi), Bassey Otu (APC, Cross River), Francis Nwifuru (APC, Ebonyi), and Peter Mbah (APC, Enugu).
Others are Governors Umar Namadi (APC, Jigawa), Uba Sani (APC, Kaduna), Dikko Radda (APC, Katsina), Ahmed Aliyu (APC, Sokoto), Agbu Kefas (APC, Taraba) and Dauda Lawal (APC, Zamfara).
Some candidates listed are Baba Wali (APC, Yobe), Sani Muhammed Abacha (PDP, Kano), Pailinu Igwe (ADC, Ebonyi), Garba Lado (PDP, Katsina), Yakunu Salihu (APC, Kwara), Obafemi Hamzat (APC, Lagos), Gbadebo Rhodes Vivour (ADC, Lagos), Isa Ashiru (ADC, Kaduna), Olamilekan Adeola (APC, Ogun), Sharafadeen Alli (APC, Oyo), Hazeem Gbolarumi (PDP, Oyo), Adebisi Lawal (ADC, Ogun), Emmanuel Ombugadu (PDP, Nasarawa), Angbazo Nuhu (ADC, Nasarawa), Emmanuel Bwacha (PDP, Taraba), Victor Jireh (APM, Abia) and Dumo Lulu-Briggs (NDC, Rivers).
Though the fee’s paperwork didn’t state the explanations for omitting some candidates, the exclusions observe a Supreme Court judgement restoring provisions of the Electoral Act 2026 that limit participation in occasion primaries to members whose names seem on membership registers submitted to INEC throughout the statutory interval.
Supreme Court ruling on occasion membership registers
On 24 September, the Supreme Court restored Sections 77(5), 77(6), 77(7) and 84(2) of the Electoral Act 2026, which the Court of Appeal had declared unconstitutional in July.
Under Section 77(5), solely occasion members whose names seem on the membership register submitted to INEC throughout the prescribed interval are eligible to take part in occasion primaries, congresses and conventions.
Section 77(6) requires political events to make use of the submitted register for his or her primaries. In distinction, Section 77(7) supplies {that a} occasion that fails to submit its register throughout the stipulated interval is ineligible to subject candidates.
Pantami’s Omission
The exclusion of Mr Pantami, the previous Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, comes after a separate authorized problem to his emergence because the PDP governorship candidate in Gombe State.
On 24 September, the Federal High Court in Gombe nullified his preliminary nomination and ordered the occasion to conduct a contemporary major inside 30 days.
The go well with adopted complaints by PDP governorship aspirants, together with Usman Aliyu and Khamisu Mailantarki, who challenged the method that produced Mr Pantami because the occasion’s candidate in May.
The court docket held that the method did not adjust to the occasion’s procedures and relevant electoral legal guidelines, excluding some aspirants who had been screened and cleared to take part.
Mr Pantami subsequently contested the contemporary major on 29 September and emerged because the occasion’s candidate once more.
Adebutu’s Omission
Mr Adebutu’s omission follows allegations that his identify was absent from the PDP membership register submitted to INEC.
Two teams, the Ogun Democratic Accountability Forum and Elections Integrity Watch, questioned his eligibility, alleging the register didn’t embody his identify.
The Ogun PDP rejected the allegations, insisting that Mr Adebutu was a duly registered member and that the occasion had complied with the statutory necessities for submitting its membership register to INEC.
His absence from the final list, alongside together with his working mate’s, leaves the PDP and not using a listed governorship candidate in Ogun State.
Chinda’s candidacy raises separate questions
The Supreme Court judgment has additionally prompted questions concerning the eligibility of Kingsley Ogundu Chinda, the APC’s governorship candidate in Rivers State.
READ ALSO: 2027: PDP reacts to Adebutu’s exclusion from governorship candidates’ list
Mr Chinda registered with the APC on 27 April 2026 and formally introduced his defection from the PDP to the APC on 2 June, after the APC had carried out its governorship major on 21 May.
The sequence has raised questions on whether or not he was a registered APC member when the occasion held its major and whether or not his identify appeared on the membership register submitted to INEC throughout the required interval.
The Rivers APC has dismissed calls to disqualify him, sustaining that his candidacy stays legitimate.
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