By Omeiza Ajayi
ABUJA: The Independent National Electoral Commission INEC has denied issuing any access code to the Nafiu Gombe faction of the African Democratic Congress ADC, insisting that the portal code for the party’s candidate nominations was granted exclusively to the Sen. David Mark-led leadership.
National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee at INEC, Mallam Mohammed Kudu Haruna, told Vanguard on Tuesday amid escalating confusion within the ADC over which faction is authorised to upload candidates for the 2027 General Elections.
He said the commission’s records were unambiguous on the matter, noting that the Mark faction had already been cleared and had acted on that clearance well before a Monday appellate court judgment nullified the group’s state congresses.
“We never issued any access code to the Nafiu Gombe faction. Before the Court of Appeal judgement we had already issued the code to the Sen. Mark faction and they had submitted over 400 names and particulars of their candidates for the national level elections, including the president and his running mate,” Haruna told Vanguard.
Gombe had, in a statement dated July 12, 2026, claimed to have successfully uploaded candidates for the presidential and National Assembly elections under his leadership.
“The African Democratic Congress, ADC, under my leadership, has successfully completed the upload of 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 safeguarding the interests of our founding and legacy members in the face of anti-democratic tendencies. As a Party, the ADC remains resolute in 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”, he said.
The ADC under Mark had accused the Gombe-led group of using forged documents purportedly issued by INEC to falsely claim it had uploaded the names of a presidential candidate and other nominees to the commission’s nomination portal.
The party asked INEC to investigate what it described as forgery and unauthorised use of official documents, warning that the development was capable of creating confusion and undermining public confidence in the electoral body.
Presidential candidate of the ADC, Atiku Abubakar, had also criticised INEC over the episode, accusing the commission of allowing the Gombe faction to upload candidates in violation of its own guidelines.
“On 11 July 2026, Nafiu Bala Gombe who parades himself as National Chairman of the African Democratic Congress ADC issued a statement that he has succeeded in uploading the names of his candidates on the portal of the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC.
“The uploading of the names of candidates on INEC portal is part of the process of the 2027 General Elections made possible by the granting of access codes to political parties in line with the umpire’s guidelines. Meanwhile, INEC has been mum, and has not denied or confirmed this 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. 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”, Atiku had said.
