The Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) has accused the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of plotting to prevent its Kano State governorship candidate, Aminu Abdussalam, from appearing on the ballot for the 2027 election.
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In response, the APC maintained that the NDC is merely suffering the fallout from a crisis arising from its primary election that drove aggrieved aspirants to seek legal redress.
The NDC vice-presidential candidate, Rabiu Kwankwaso, alleged that the ruling APC orchestrated the omission of Mr Abdussalam’s name from the final list of candidates recently published on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) portal.
The names of Mr Abdussalam and his running mate, Mustapha Kwankwaso, are not on the final INEC list issued on 11 October.
Mr Kwankwaso reiterated the allegation on Monday after INEC released an updated list on Saturday, with Mr Abdussalam’s name still absent.
Addressing party loyalists in a video shared on social media, Mr Kwankwaso alleged that the state government initially attempted to pressure INEC into dropping the NDC candidate and only turned to the judiciary after the alleged effort fell through.
According to him, the state leadership realised it had made a grave political miscalculation by defecting to the APC and has since been scrambling to block the NDC from fielding a candidate.
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”What he wanted was for INEC to declare that there was no governorship candidate in Kano NDC. When that did not happen, they went to court seeking the disqualification of our candidate,” Mr Kwankwaso said, in an apparent reference to Governor Abba Yusuf, whom he did not mention by name.
He further claimed that allies of the governor filed the suit against the party and INEC covertly to secure an injunction without drawing public scrutiny.
According to Mr Kwankwaso, the litigation was deliberately structured for the NDC candidate to be unaware of the proceedings until judgement was handed down.
He maintained that the candidate faces no constitutional or legal disqualifications.
”Our candidates have no issues relating to age, educational qualification or any other constitutional requirement. There is nothing that should stop them from contesting the election,” he said.
Mr Kwankwaso added that the ruling party was avoiding an open electoral contest out of fear that Kano voters would reject the APC at the polls.
APC response
Dismissing the claims late Monday, the Kano State APC Chairman, Umar Doguwa, insisted in a statement that internal NDC strife—not external interference—caused the candidate’s omission from the INEC list.
Mr Doguwa described the allegation as false, baseless, and an attempt by Mr Kwankwaso to blackmail the APC and its governorship candidate, insisting that neither the party nor Governor Yusuf had any hand in the legal proceedings.
“The case originated from the internal crisis within the NDC,” Mr Doguwa stated, explaining that aggrieved NDC members instituted the action against their own party.
“The attempts to associate the APC and its candidate Gov. Yusuf with the matter were misleading and intended to shift attention from the internal challenges confronting the NDC,” he added.
Reiterating that the APC had not sponsored, influenced, or facilitated the lawsuit, Mr Doguwa challenged Mr Kwankwaso to present credible, verifiable evidence connecting the APC or Governor Yusuf to the case rather than making unsubstantiated claims that mislead the public and stoke political tension.
What is in the court
The Federal High Court in Kano has issued an interim injunction restraining INEC from publishing, altering, or tampering with the gubernatorial candidate list concerning NDC ahead of the 2027 governorship election in Kano State.
Justice Samuel Amobeda made the directive in his ruling on an ex parte application in Suit No. FHC/KN/CS/440/2026.
The lawsuit was instituted by three plaintiffs—Garba Isa, Yau Nasiru, and Atiku Jamilu-Abubakar—against INEC as the 1st defendant and the NDC as the 2nd defendant.
The motion ex parte, filed on 17 October 17, was moved by counsel to the applicants, S.A. Abdullahi, seeking urgent protective judicial intervention over the state’s gubernatorial candidate list.
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Delivering the ruling, Justice Amobeda granted the interim reliefs, thereby barring the electoral commission, its agents, privies, or assigns from making changes to the list pending the determination of the substantive application.
“That 1st Defendant/Respondent, its agents, privies, assigns, officers or any person or group of persons deriving authority from it are restrained from publishing the name of any candidate in the Gubernatorial List of candidates as it relates to the 2nd Defendant/Respondent in the Kano Gubernatorial election for 2027 pending the Hearing of the Motion on Notice.
“That 1st Defendant/Respondent, their agents, privies, assigns, officers or any person or group of persons deriving authority from them are restrained in the interim from tampering, altering, adding to or subtracting from the final Gubernatorial list of the 1st Defendant/ Respondent published on or about the 10th day of October 2026 pending the Hearing of the Motion on Notice.
“That the Order and the Processes shall be served on the Defendants before the next Adjourned date.
“That accelerated hearing is ordered.”
The court documents substantiate the electoral umpire’s stance that its management and handling of the candidate roster remain strictly guided by subsisting judicial pronouncements.
Justice Amobeda subsequently adjourned the matter for hearing on 2 November.