By Precious Mark
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of partisanship, claiming the electoral umpire is aiding and abetting an agenda by President Bola Tinubu to disenfranchise the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and other opposition parties ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The former Vice President expressed these views on Monday through his media office, where he reacted to a claim made on Saturday, July 11, by Nafiu Bala Gombe, whose faction allegedly succeeded in uploading candidate names onto the INEC portal using official access codes.
Atiku criticized the commission’s silence on the matter, stating that INEC has remained mum and failed to confirm or deny what he termed an “obvious contradiction to the law and its own guidelines.”
“By granting access code to Bala Gombe, a pretender laying claims to the chairmanship of the ADC, though the law is not on his side and INEC has since validated the chairmanship of the Sen. David Mark-led exco, the electoral umpire is once again manifesting its partisanship,” Atiku asserted.
He drew parallels to previous actions under the commission’s leadership, alleging that “this was the same thing that the Prof. Joash Amupitan-led INEC did when it illegally removed the names of the duly recognised ADC exco following the judicial rascality of Justice Lifu in ignoring a superior ruling of an appellate court.”
The statement maintained that the Sen. David Mark-led executive remains the only legally recognized leadership of the ADC, with Atiku questioning how a single political party could be allocated multiple access codes or have two recognized heads.
“The so-called ‘successful’ uploading of ‘candidates’ by Nafiu Bala Gombe is neither grounded in law or supported by INEC’s own guidelines,” Atiku noted.
“What INEC has done is a recipe for crisis and confirms that Prof. Joash Amupitan was appointed to enable the weakening of the opposition parties by creating crisis even where none exists,” he added.
Citing legal frameworks, Atiku reminded the commission of Section 222 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and Section 84 of the Electoral Act 2022, which dictate that candidates must emerge from supervised primaries and that only one validly nominated candidate per elective office can be submitted. He alleged that Gombe’s faction did not conduct any such primaries.
“The INEC granting of access code to Nafiu Bala Gombe is unconstitutional and unlawful. The only submitted candidates known to the law are those of David Mark. Any parallel submission such as Nafiu Bala Gombe’s is null and void,” the statement read.
Atiku concluded with a direct challenge to the electoral leadership, stating, “Prof. Joash Amupitan should quit fomenting crisis in the ADC and the other opposition parties and by so doing helping President Bola Tinubu’s agenda of total state capture.”