INEC has denied giving the African Democratic Congress (ADC) faction led by Nafiu Bala Gombe an access code.
It was learned that Gombe, in a statement issued on July 12, 2026, had claimed that he had successfully uploaded candidates for the presidential and National Assembly elections during his tenure.
He said, “The African Democratic Congress, ADC, under my leadership has successfully uploaded our Presidential, Vice-Presidential and National Assembly candidates on the INEC portal for the 2027 General Elections.
“This achievement demonstrates our Party’s firm commitment to protecting the interests of our founding and legacy members against anti-democratic tendencies. “As a Party, ADC remains committed to its mission to field credible, competent and people-centered candidates who will provide purposeful leadership, promote good governance and bring hope to the Nigerian people,” the party said.
Speaking on the confusion in the ADC on who has the authority to upload candidates for the 2027 general elections, the National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee at INEC, Mallam Mohammed Kudu Haruna, said that the commission never issued any access code to the Gombe faction.
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Haruna said the portal code for party candidate nominations was only released to the ADC leadership under Senator David Mark.
He said the commission’s records were clear on the issue, noting that the Mark faction had been cleared and had acted on that clearance long before a Monday appellate court ruling invalidated the group’s state congresses.
“We did not issue any access code to the Nafiu Gombe faction,” Haruna said. “The code we had released before the judgement of the Court of Appeal was given to the Sen. Mark faction and they have submitted over 400 names and particulars of their candidates for the national level elections including the President and his running mate.”