The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has rejected the presidential nomination of former President Goodluck Jonathan submitted by the Kabiru Turaki-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), insisting that candidate nominations can only be made through its designated electronic portal.
The development follows the faction’s claim on Friday that it had manually submitted Jonathan’s nomination, along with the names of its candidates for the 2027 general elections, to the commission.
Responding to the claim, INEC’s Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Victoria Eta-Messi, said the commission does not accept manual submissions.
“Submission is only done on a dedicated portal as stipulated by our regulations and guidelines,” she said.
However, the National Publicity Secretary of the Turaki-led faction, Comrade Ini Ememobong, maintained that the manual submission complied with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2026. He explained that the faction resorted to manual filing after INEC allegedly failed to provide the access codes required for electronic submission.
According to Ememobong, the access codes are an administrative requirement rather than a legal condition for submitting candidates’ names.
He said the faction successfully submitted the list of candidates, including Jonathan’s presidential nomination and nominees for governorship, National Assembly and state assembly elections, adding that the documents were acknowledged by INEC despite the dispute over the party’s leadership.
Ememobong warned the commission against publishing any list different from the one submitted by his faction, stating that the group would pursue all available constitutional and legal remedies if that occurred.
He attributed the leadership crisis within the PDP to a Supreme Court judgment, which he said left the party without a legally recognised national leadership. According to him, the party’s Board of Trustees and a requisitioned National Executive Committee meeting subsequently constituted an Interim National Working Committee to fill the vacuum.
He alleged that INEC refused to recognise the interim leadership despite being formally notified, prompting the faction to seek judicial intervention.
Ememobong also criticised a recent Federal High Court judgment on the dispute, describing it as inconsistent with earlier decisions of the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal. He disclosed that the faction had appealed the judgment and would also challenge alleged discrepancies between the judgment delivered in court and its Certified True Copy.
The PDP chieftain further accused INEC of failing to remain neutral in the handling of the party’s internal crisis, alleging that the commission withheld relevant facts during court proceedings and disregarded congresses it had monitored.
He also claimed that the challenges facing the PDP were part of a broader effort to weaken opposition parties and promote one-party dominance in Nigeria.
Calling on Nigerians to defend the country’s multi-party democracy, Ememobong warned that actions capable of undermining political competition could threaten democratic consolidation. He expressed confidence that his faction would ultimately succeed in the legal battle over the party’s leadership and candidate nominations.
