2027: INEC REJECTS 28 GOVERNORSHIP PETITIONS, REMOVES SOME AFTER REGISTER CHECK

INEC has ruled on the complaints over the final lists of 2027 candidates. It upheld 41 of 69 governorship petitions and 25 of 61 State Houses of Assembly petitions, but it did not name a single affected candidate.

The Commission announced the outcome in a statement dated 29 October by Mohammed Kudu Haruna, chairman of its Information and Voter Education Committee (IVEC).

ValidViewNetwork reports that the statement follows INEC’s 13 October press statement and concerns the final lists published on 10 October.

WHAT THE COMPLAINTS WERE ABOUT

The petitions raised three issues.

First, some parties were omitted.

Second, some candidates were wrongly included even though their names were absent from their parties’ membership registers.

Third, some candidates were allegedly nominated more than once.

THE NUMBERS

For governorship, INEC received 69 petitions from 12 parties across 26 states. Forty-one succeeded and 28 failed.

For State Houses of Assembly, it received 61 petitions from 11 parties across 11 states. Twenty-five succeeded and 36 failed.

Taken together, 66 of 130 petitions succeeded.

WHAT THE COMMISSION DID

INEC reviewed the complaints, relevant records and applicable law. It approved the inclusion of affected candidates and parties where it found merit and declined the rest.

It also removed names wrongly published after confirming they were not on the register.

It said Assembly decisions followed specific complaints and its established criteria.

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The Commission added that the affected candidates, parties and states will appear in the updated list on its website.

FACT-CHECK: WHAT THE CIRCULATING REPORTS CAN AND CANNOT SHOW

Several outlets reported on Thursday that INEC had cleared Isa Pantami in Gombe and Abdulsalam Gwarzo in Kano, but rejected the petition of Ogun PDP candidate Ladi Adebutu.

ValidViewNetwork has checked what stands behind those reports.

First, the claim has one source. The reports trace to an unnamed INEC source who spoke to Daily Trust after the commission’s Thursday meeting.

ValidViewNetwork notes that the official statement did not name any candidate or state. Nothing published by the Commission itself confirms the three names.

Second, the source’s figures do not match INEC’s. The source said the Commission received 69 petitions covering both governorship and State Assembly, and that about 36 succeeded.

The official count is 69 petitions for governorship alone, plus 61 for Assemblies. The official figure for governorship successes is 41, not 36. The figure of 36 coincides with the number of Assembly petitions that failed.

A source whose headline numbers do not survive comparison with the official statement deserves caution on names.

Third, the reports hedge their own claim. They say the clearance of Pantami and Gwarzo is subject to pending court cases. The same source said a court proceeding on Pantami’s candidacy was expected on Friday.

A conditional clearance by an anonymous source is not an official ruling.

What this does not prove. None of this shows that the reports are false. The unnamed source may be right. INEC’s silence on names is also not a denial. Only the updated list on the Commission’s website can settle the matter.

WHY CAUTION IS WARRANTED

Fabricated notices have circulated before.

On 12 October, INEC disowned a fake publication on governorship candidates in six states and told the public to rely only on its verified channels.

Adebutu and Pantami were both among the prominent names omitted from the 10 October list.

Adebutu has insisted he remains a registered PDP member who met the membership registration requirements. Neither Adebutu nor the PDP has responded to the reports in the coverage seen so far.

Until INEC publishes the updated list, every name attached to these petitions should be treated as unconfirmed.

In an election season, a rumour can do damage faster than a correction can undo it. INEC has promised transparency, and the updated list is how it can prove it. ValidViewNetwork reports