By Olawale Lamina
The presidential candidate of the Africa Democratic Congress, ADC and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has alleged that the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Joash Amupitan, was appointed to bring down opposition parties by engineering crises within their fold, just as he decried the electoral umpire’s pattern of handling leadership dispute in his party as an example.
In a statement issued by his Media Adviser, Paul Ibe, on Monday and signed by the Atiku Media Office, the former VP alleged that INEC’s action, if confirmed, could be regarded as partisanship, and likely to provoke another round of crisis within the ADC before the 2027 general elections.
This was sequel to a claim by Nafiu Gombe, purported to be the National Chairman of the ADC, stating that he had successfully uploaded the names of the party’s candidates to INEC’s portal.
Atiku argued that the uploading of party candidates’ names is part of the process for the 2027 general elections, through access codes issued by INEC to political parties in line with the commission’s guidelines. But he picked holes, stating that the commission allegedly granted an access code to Gombe despite his insistence that Senator David Mark leads the duly recognised national executive of the party.
“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.”
According to former VP Atiku, by granting an access code to Gombe, INEC had acted in contravention of the law and its own earlier recognition of the David Mark-led executive.
“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.
“The so-called “successful” uploading of “candidates” by Nafiu Bala Gombe is neither grounded in law nor supported by INEC’s own guidelines. Nafiu Bala Gombe is not recognised as ADC Chairman. Mark is duly recognised. Can there be two recognised Chairmen of a political party? Possibly only in an INEC led by Amupitan. Can INEC grant two access codes to a political party? Certainly not.
“What INEC has done is a recipe for crisis and confirms that Prof Joash Amupitan was appointed to enable the weakening of the opposition parties by creating crisis even where none exists,” Atiku declared.
The ADC presidential candidate equally cited constitutional and electoral laws to support his argument, stressing that only candidates submitted by the David Mark-led leadership are valid based on the electoral provisions.
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