No Register, No Candidacy: Expect INEC’s Decision On Sept 24 Supreme Court Ruling Next Week-Top Official
Ahead of the 2027 general election, the nation’s electoral body, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has clarified and submitted that candidates of political parties whose names are not on register of members will have their candidacies invalidated.
Team@orientactualmags.com learned that INEC’s National Commissioner in charge of information and voter education, Malam Mohammed Haruna, who said while appearing on Trust TV’s Daily Politics on Wednesday evening, added that political parties will not be allowed to substitute such candidates because defaulters will not be allowed to benefit from an offence they committed.
Recall that the Supreme Court had on Thursday, September 24, 2026, affirmed the validity of Sections 77 (subsections 5 to 7) and 84 of the Electoral Act 2026. This followed appeals filed by the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP).
The INEC top official also disclosed that the electoral body will be making a definite pronouncement on the Supreme Court judgment in question next week Tuesday.
‘It’s like you committed an offence. And then, you come and benefit from it. You remember cases that we had of some in Zamfara, you remember Plateau? The same thing. The parties, because they did the wrong thing, they thought they could now steal through the candidates.
And the law was very clear. Once you do that kind of thing, you cannot benefit from it. You are benefiting from it, if you are able to substitute a candidate’ he said.
Malam Mohammed Haruna also said by implication depending on when INEC finally concludes, ‘some parties may not be able to finish with even governorship candidates’.
‘All the candidates, all the way to the houses of assembly, we interviewed them. If their names are not on the party register, they were not members of the party at the time that they contested for those tickets.
You can’t be too careful with these things because even when you see copies and they tell you it’s a CTC, it may be forged. We’ve seen instances where people have even gone, have the audacity to forge a Supreme Court judgment. So, we have to be very careful to make sure that when you took us, we did put a lot of pressure and we were able to get it yesterday (Tuesday)’ he added.
The INEC commissioner also said the explosive comments being made by political actors are worrisome.
‘Those kind of things, even if it’s a minority, it’s a cause for concern, because nobody should be threatened at all. All those talks, they are not reassuring at all. There are things, there are talks, actions, that really is a cause for worry, not just for us, but it should be a cause of worry for everybody, including the ruling party’ he submitted-Team@orientactualmags.com Do you have any information you wish to share with us? Do you want us to cover your event or programme? Kindly send SMS to 08035023079, 08059100286, 09094171980 or get in touch via orientactualmag@gmail.com. Thank you
