The Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of systematically removing its legitimately nominated candidates for the 2027 general elections and replacing them with unauthorized individuals.

Reacting to the list of candidates for the State Houses of Assembly elections published by INEC on Sunday, NDC National Chairman, Senator Moses Cleopas Zuwoghe, said there is a deliberate attempt to sabotage the party and trigger widespread disaffection among its supporters.

He alleged that the electoral body focused specifically on constituencies in Anambra—the home state of its presidential candidate, Peter Obi.

“The Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, totally condemns the action of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and its officials over the uploading and publication of unauthorized names in various constituencies, principally in the Anambra State House of Assembly, where nine (9) names, unknown to the party; names not authorized by the party; names not sent by the party to INEC, in accordance with the law, have now been uploaded and published as candidates of the party,” the statement read.

Sen. Zuwoghe called on the INEC Chairman to immediately launch an investigation into how unauthorized names were allegedly published and extend the inquiry to other states, including Benue and Imo, where similar discrepancies were reported.

“We call on the INEC Chairman to urgently and immediately cause an investigation into the matter and unravel how this came to be,” Zuwoghe stated.

“The same investigation should also be carried out in other constituencies like Benue, Imo, and others, as this mischief has not only caused an embarrassment to the party, its leadership, and genuine candidates, but has also caused a lot of disaffection among millions of the party’s supporters all over the country and in the Diaspora.”

The NDC National Chairman said preliminary findings from the party’s internal investigation point toward complicity by certain INEC officials, alleging that the portal’s upload process was leveraged as a tool of blackmail and intimidation against the party.

According to the NDC leadership, the unauthorized names published for the Anambra State House of Assembly (SHOA) constituencies include Onitsha South 1 – Umennaajiego Jude Ezenwa, Onitsha South 2 – Akpotue Obinna Chibuike, Orumba North – Nwankwo Chiemerie, Anaocha 1 – Maduagwu Eric K, Idemili North – Ngoebisi Obinna, Njikoka 1 – Isintume Charles and Nnewi South 1 – Nwachukwu Nonso.

Others are Nnewi South 2 – Okeke Ifeanyi Akunne, Ayamelum – Nnonyelu Samson E. and Dunukofia – Azotani Chuks Francis.

Clarifying the nomination process, Sen. Zuwoghe emphasized that as the custodian of the party’s official submission credentials, neither he nor the party authorized the upload of the controversial names.

“What happened was that after the conclusion of our primaries and the appeal process, the stakeholders from Anambra working with the party leadership, representatives of our presidential candidate, and the Appeals panel produced a final list of candidates, which was signed off on by all,” he explained.

“However, when that final list was uploaded to the INEC portal using the code given to us by the Electoral Commission, INEC officials in complete control of the backend kept nine of the names on ‘Pending’ status, claiming their system already had names submitted by officials who monitored the primaries on the field.”

Zuwoghe further alleged that INEC bypassed party leadership to collect Form EC-9 directly from the unapproved candidates before publishing their names, calling the procedure a violation of both the Electoral Act and INEC’s guidelines.

He added that if an irreconcilable discrepancy existed between party submissions and field monitoring reports, the commission should have left the candidate entries blank rather than preloading unauthorized individuals.

The NDC Chairman warned that the party will take immediate legal action to rectify the situation, assuring supporters that the published individuals do not represent the party.