The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has denied claims that it granted nomination portal access to the Nafiu Gombe faction of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), insisting that only the Senator David Mark-led leadership received the official access code.
The clarification comes amid growing controversy over which faction of the party is authorised to submit candidates for the 2027 general elections.
Speaking on Tuesday, INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, Mallam Mohammed Kudu Haruna, said the commission never issued any nomination portal access code to Gombe’s group.
According to him, INEC had already recognised the David Mark-led leadership before the recent Court of Appeal judgment and had provided it with the required portal access to upload candidates.
“We never issued any access code to the Nafiu Gombe faction. Before the Court of Appeal judgment, we had already issued the code to the Senator David Mark faction, and they had submitted over 400 names of candidates, including the party’s presidential and vice-presidential candidates,” Haruna said.
The controversy began after Nafiu Gombe announced that his faction had successfully uploaded the names of its presidential, vice-presidential and National Assembly candidates to INEC’s nomination portal.
However, the ADC leadership under David Mark dismissed the claim, alleging that forged INEC documents were used to create the impression that Gombe’s group had access to the commission’s portal.
The party subsequently called on INEC to investigate what it described as forgery and the unauthorised use of documents capable of misleading the public and damaging the commission’s credibility.
Earlier, Atiku Abubakar, the ADC’s presidential candidate, had criticised INEC over the controversy, questioning whether the electoral body had granted portal access to the Gombe faction despite recognising the David Mark-led leadership.
With INEC’s latest clarification, the commission has maintained that only the recognised ADC leadership was authorised to submit candidates through its official nomination portal.
