GWARZO’S NAME STILL MISSING ON UPDATED GUBERNATORIAL LIST

November 1, 2026 • Dons Eze • 2 min read

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has removed the name of the Kano State governorship candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Aminu Abdussalam Gwarzo, from its updated list of candidates for the 2027 general elections.

Gwarzo had petitioned the commission over the omission of his name on the initial list published on October 10, 2026.

Mohammed Haruna, a National Commissioner at INEC, had revealed that Gwarzo’s petition was considered successful, “but publishing his name is subject to the final outcome of an ex-parte order by a Kano federal high court”.

Checks on the commission’s website revealed that the names of Gwarzo and his deputy were conspicuously missing from the updated list, with INEC indicating “Court Order” in the remarks column.

The development has raised fresh questions over the status of the NDC governorship ticket.

The NDC had approached a Federal High Court in Abuja on October 27 to challenge the omission of its candidate’s name from the gubernatorial list. It sought an order to compel INEC to include his name.

On October 29, reports emerged that INEC had approved Gwarzo’s petition alongside that of former Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Ali Pantami, among other candidates whose names were initially omitted.

However, the clearance was reported to be subject to the outcome of pending court cases.

The latest update appears to have reversed the commission’s earlier position, with the new list retaining Gwarzo’s exclusion on the grounds of a court order.

The previous omission of Gwarzo’s name had sparked protests and calls for clarification from the NDC, which insisted that its candidates had fulfilled all the requirements for participation in the election.

The party had initially suggested that the omission resulted from a computer-related error and expressed confidence that INEC would rectify it.

But the commission had explained that its candidate-list decisions were influenced by legal requirements concerning the submission of political parties’ membership registers, following a September 24 Supreme Court judgment on the Electoral Act 2026.

The latest development has once again thrown the NDC’s participation in the Kano governorship race into uncertainty.

Dons Eze

DONS EZE, PhD, Political Philosopher and Journalist of over four decades standing, worked in several newspaper houses across the country, and rose to the positions of Editor and General Manager. A UNESCO Fellow in Journalism, Dr. Dons Eze, a prolific writer and author of many books, attended several courses on Journalism and Communication in both Nigeria and overseas, including a Postgraduate Course on Journalism at Warsaw, Poland; Strategic Communication and Practical Communication Approach at RIPA International, London, the United Kingdom, among others.