The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has excluded the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) applicants in Gombe, Isa Pantami, and in Ogun State, Ladi Adebutu, from its final list of applicants for the 6 February 2027 governorship elections.
However, the sum indexed Kingsley Chinda because the All Progressives Congress (APC) complex in Rivers State.
Mr Chinda, a management of the House of Representatives, is an best friend of Nyesom Wike, a PDP management serving in the APC-led federal showcase.
INEC’s final lists, printed on Saturday, integrated 16 governorship applicants for Gombe State and 13 for Ogun State, without a PDP complex.
According to the list, Abia State has 17 applicants, Adamawa (18), Akwa Ibom (20), Bauchi (15), Benue (12), Borno (13), Cross River (8), Delta (18), Ebonyi (12), Enugu (16), Jigawa (13), Kaduna (16), Kano (17), and Katsina (11).
Others are Kebbi (14), Kwara (12), Lagos (16), Nasarawa (13), Niger (15), Oyo (16), Plateau (15), Rivers (17), Sokoto (17), Taraba (12), Yobe (13), and Zamfara (15).
Eight different states degree off-cycle elections at other occasions. They are Kogi, Ekiti, Ondo, Imo, Osun, Edo, Bayelsa, Ondo and Anambra.
Among different applicants cleared by means of the electoral frame are Governors Alex Otti (LP, Abia), Umaru Bago (APC, Niger), Caleb Muftwang (Plateau), Umo Eno (APC, Akwa Ibom), Kabir Yusuf (Kano), Hyacinth Alia (APC, Benue), Nasir Idris (APC, Kebbi), Bassey Otu (APC, Cross River), Francis Nwifuru (APC, Ebonyi), and Peter Mbah (APC, Enugu).
Others are Governors Umar Namadi (APC, Jigawa), Uba Sani (APC, Kaduna), Dikko Radda (APC, Katsina), Ahmed Aliyu (APC, Sokoto), Agbu Kefas (APC, Taraba) and Dauda Lawal (APC, Zamfara).
Some applicants indexed are Baba Wali (APC, Yobe), Sani Muhammed Abacha (PDP, Kano), Pailinu Igwe (ADC, Ebonyi), Garba Lado (PDP, Katsina), Yakunu Salihu (APC, Kwara), Obafemi Hamzat (APC, Lagos), Gbadebo Rhodes Vivour (ADC, Lagos), Isa Ashiru (ADC, Kaduna), Olamilekan Adeola (APC, Ogun), Sharafadeen Alli (APC, Oyo), Hazeem Gbolarumi (PDP, Oyo), Adebisi Lawal (ADC, Ogun), Emmanuel Ombugadu (PDP, Nasarawa), Angbazo Nuhu (ADC, Nasarawa), Emmanuel Bwacha (PDP, Taraba), Victor Jireh (APM, Abia) and Dumo Lulu-Briggs (NDC, Rivers).
Though the sum’s paperwork didn’t horizon the explanations for omitting some applicants, the exclusions weight a Supreme Court judgement restoring provisions of the Electoral Act 2026 that interview participation in birthday celebration primaries to participants whose names seem on confidence registers submitted to INEC throughout the statutory transportation.
Supreme Court ruling on birthday celebration confidence registers
On 24 September, the Supreme Court restored Sections 77(5), 77(6), 77(7) and 84(2) of the Electoral Act 2026, which the Court of Appeal had declared unconstitutional in July.
Under Section 77(5), best birthday celebration participants whose names seem at the confidence adjust submitted to INEC throughout the prescribed transportation are eligible to involvement in birthday celebration primaries, congresses and conventions.
Section 77(6) calls for motivation events to retire the submitted adjust for his or her primaries. In distinction, Section 77(7) supplies {that a} birthday celebration that fails to unlimited its adjust throughout the stipulated transportation is ineligible to backing applicants.
Pantami’s Omission
The exclusion of Mr Pantami, the previous Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, comes after a part tenancy direction to his emergence because the PDP governorship complex in Gombe State.
On 24 September, the Federal High Court in Gombe nullified his shut nomination and ordered the birthday celebration to site a contemporary cease inside of 30 days.
The load adopted proceedings by means of PDP governorship aspirants, together with Usman Aliyu and Khamisu Mailantarki, who challenged the mediator that produced Mr Pantami because the birthday celebration’s complex in May.
The courtroom held that the mediator did not preserve with the birthday celebration’s procedures and appropriate electoral rules, except some aspirants who have been screened and cleared to involvement.
Mr Pantami due to this fact contested the contemporary cease on 29 September and emerged because the birthday celebration’s complex once more.
Adebutu’s Omission
Mr Adebutu’s omission follows allegations that his title was once absent from the PDP confidence adjust submitted to INEC.
Two teams, the Ogun Democratic Accountability Forum and Elections Integrity Watch, wondered his eligibility, alleging the adjust didn’t sustain his title.
The Ogun PDP rejected the allegations, insisting that Mr Adebutu was once a duly registered management and that the birthday celebration had complied with the statutory necessities for filing its confidence adjust to INEC.
His absence from the final list, together with his operating mate’s, leaves the PDP and not using a indexed governorship complex in Ogun State.
Chinda’s candidacy raises part questions
The Supreme Court judgment has additionally triggered questions concerning the eligibility of Kingsley Ogundu Chinda, the APC’s governorship complex in Rivers State.
READ ALSO: 2027: PDP reacts to Adebutu’s exclusion from governorship candidates’ list
Mr Chinda registered with the APC on 27 April 2026 and officially introduced his defection from the PDP to the APC on 2 June, after the APC had performed its governorship cease on 21 May.
The phrase has raised questions on whether or not he was once a registered APC management when the birthday celebration held its cease and whether or not his title gave the impression at the confidence adjust submitted to INEC throughout the required transportation.
The Rivers APC has brushed aside calls to disqualify him, keeping up that his candidacy stays legitimate.
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