Fresh controversy has emerged within the African Democratic Congress (ADC) after the party’s leadership and the Atiku Abubakar media office offered conflicting accounts over whether the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) granted nomination portal access to Nafiu Bala Gombe.
The disagreement followed claims by Gombe’s group that it had successfully uploaded the names of presidential and other candidates to INEC’s nomination portal.
In a statement released on Monday, the Atiku media office alleged that INEC issued a nomination portal access code to Gombe’s group despite recognising the David Mark-led leadership of the ADC.
According to the media office, Gombe’s claim could only have been possible if the electoral commission had provided access to the portal, raising concerns about INEC’s neutrality.
However, the ADC’s National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, dismissed the allegation, insisting that the report was false.
He explained that INEC only grants nomination portal access to the leadership it officially recognises and cannot issue multiple access codes to different factions of the same political party.
“INEC does not issue nomination portal access or nomination codes to a leadership it does not recognise,” Abdullahi stated.
The party further called on INEC to investigate what it described as the alleged forgery and unauthorised use of documents purportedly issued by the commission.
ADC also maintained that it is not divided and insisted that its recognised leadership had already completed the nomination process in line with the Electoral Act and INEC guidelines.
The party reaffirmed that the details of its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and vice-presidential candidate, Rotimi Amaechi, had already been successfully uploaded to the commission’s portal.
ADC urged its members, supporters and the general public to ignore what it described as false reports and rely only on official statements released through the party’s authorised communication channels.
