Omission: INEC decides Pantami, Adebutu’s fate today

The Independent National Electoral Commission has disclosed that it will determine the fate of former Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami; Ladi Adebutu and other politicians omitted from its final list of candidates for the February 6, 2027 governorship elections at its next meeting on Thursday.

INEC National Commissioner, Mohammed Haruna, disclosed this in an exclusive chat with The PUNCH on Wednesday.

Pantami is contesting the Gombe governorship election, while Adebutu is contesting the Ogun governorship on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party.

Their names, alongside Aminu Gwarzo, the Kano governorship candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress and his Kaduna State counterpart, Danjuma Laah, among others, were omitted in the INEC list published on October 10.

INEC also excluded the governorship candidates of the Social Democratic Party, New Nigeria People’s Party, Action Alliance and Accord in Bauchi State.

The affected candidates are Abdullahi Yakubu, Musa Zubairu, Ahmed Shuaibu and Mohammed Aminu, respectively.

The development triggered protests and legal moves by the affected politicians and their parties.

The matter is set to be deliberated upon amid uncertainty over whether the affected candidates would be reinstated following complaints by their political parties.

“As for the final list of candidates, we will meet on it at our next commission meeting on Thursday,” Haruna said.

The commission had attributed the exclusions to the failure of the affected political parties to submit their membership registers within the period stipulated by law.

The decision followed the Supreme Court judgment of September 24, 2026, which upheld the constitutionality of Sections 77(5), 77(6) and 77(7) of the Electoral Act, 2026, requiring political parties to submit their membership registers to INEC before conducting valid primaries, congresses and conventions.

In its explanation, the commission said the apex court had affirmed the legality of its timetable requiring political parties to submit their membership registers between April 21 and May 10, 2026.

“In particular, the court upheld the constitutionality of Item No. 2 of INEC’s Timetable and Schedule of Activities, which mandated political parties to submit their membership registers between 21st April and 10th May, 2026,” the commission stated.

INEC said political parties that failed to comply with the requirement were ineligible to sponsor candidates in the elections.

The commission also relied on Section 287(1) of the 1999 Constitution, which requires authorities to enforce decisions of competent courts, in applying the Supreme Court judgment to the final list of governorship candidates.

However, the affected parties have maintained that they complied with the relevant provisions and urged INEC to correct what they described as wrongful omissions.

The PDP had approached the commission over the exclusion of Pantami and Adebutu, while its National Organising Secretary, Umar Bature, deposed to an affidavit at the Federal High Court Registry in Abuja on October 15, challenging the omissions.

The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Mohammed Jungudo, had said the party leadership and the candidates’ legal teams were engaging INEC over the matter, adding that legal action remained an option if the commission failed to resolve the dispute.

In Ogun State, they expressed confidence that the former governorship candidate would be included in a revised list.

The Ogun PDP Chairman, Abayomi Tella, described Adebutu’s exclusion as an error, insisting that the party had fulfilled the legal requirements for his nomination.

“The party views the omission as an error by INEC; we are very confident and optimistic that INEC will restore the name because every requirement of the law has been fulfilled,” Tella said.

In Gombe State, an aide to Pantami said the former minister would pursue available legal options to challenge his exclusion.

Pantami emerged as the PDP governorship candidate following a court-ordered rerun of the party’s primary on September 29.

His name appeared on INEC’s provisional list published on August 29 but was missing from the final list released on October 10.

The NDC has also protested the exclusion of Gwarzo and his running mate, Mustapha Rabiu Kwankwaso.

The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Osa Director, said the party had written to INEC and received acknowledgements but was yet to receive a substantive response.

INEC had earlier given political parties 14 days from the publication of the final list to notify it of candidates they believed had been wrongly omitted, in accordance with Section 32(2) of the Electoral Act, 2026. The deadline expired on October 24.(Punch)