The Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), on Wednesday, insisted that it did not submit the names or Form EC9E documents of 10 Anambra State House of Assembly candidates published by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and demanded an immediate electronic audit of the commission’s nomination portal.

In a statement signed by Agada Abuh Theophilus, NDC Director of New Media and Strategic Communications, the party said the 10 names that appeared on INEC’s published list were never uploaded by the party and did not emerge from its nomination and appeal process.

It asked the commission to explain how the documents entered its system.

The disputed names, according to the NDC, are:

1. Onitsha South 1 – Umennaajiego Jude Ezenwa
2. Onitsha South 2 – Akpotue Obinna Chibuike
3. Orumba North – Nwankwo Chiemerie
4. Anaocha 1 – Maduagwu Eric K.
5. Idemili North – Ngoebisi Obinna
6. Njikoka 1 – Isintume Charles
7. Nnewi South 1 – Nwachukwu Nonso
8. Nnewi South 2 – Okeke Ifeanyi Akunne
9. Ayamelum – Nnonyelu Samson E.
10. Dunukofia – Azotani Chuks Francis

“The nomination process is clear: a political party submits the names and particulars of its approved candidates, after which INEC processes, approves and publishes them.”

“It is the party’s legal responsibility to submit the names and credentials of its nominated candidates. The NDC did not collect or forward completed EC9E forms for the 10 persons whose names later appeared on INEC’s published list.

“How did the Commission obtain their credentials when it is the party’s legal duty to submit the names of its approved candidates?” the statement read.

The NDC said the National Chairman, Senator Moses Cleopas, as a custodian of the access code issued to the party for candidate uploads, never uploaded the disputed names.

According to that account, after primaries and the appeal process, Anambra stakeholders, working with party leadership, representatives of the presidential candidate and the appeals panel, produced a final list that was signed off by all.

When that list was uploaded using the code given by INEC, officials who control the backend of the portal kept several of the party’s names on “Pending” status, claiming the system already contained names submitted by field monitors of the primaries.

The NDC said even after it formally appealed those names and submitted its actual nominees with a covering letter, INEC refused to replace them.

It alleged that the commission then collected Form EC9 directly from the disputed candidates, bypassing the party, and published the names as authentic NDC candidates.

Senator Cleopas described the development as contrary to the Electoral Act and INEC’s own guidelines.

He said if the names submitted by the party did not tally with those INEC claimed to have received from its monitoring teams, the commission should have left the slots blank rather than preload names and block the party from uploading its nominees.

“At the very worst, INEC could have left us with no candidates for those positions if it was unwilling to engage us on any perceived anomaly,” he said.

The chairman condemned what he called an emerging pattern in which INEC prevents parties from uploading their rightful candidates while imposing names on them, particularly opposition parties, thereby fuelling internal crisis.

He vowed that the NDC would pursue the matter to the end until the situation is reversed.

The party called on INEC to conduct an electronic audit trail of its candidate nomination portal to establish how the 10 names were entered, alleging that they were introduced through the backend of the system.