ABUJA, NIGERIA — The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has officially declared that any political party primary elections conducted after the May 30 statutory deadline are completely invalid and void.
The electoral umpire issued a stern warning to political parties attempting to sneak backdoor candidates into its central database, insisting that the submission timeline remains fixed pending the outcome of active court appeals.
Enforcement of the Statutory Timeline
The decisive move by INEC has immediately thrown several political organizations into extreme panic, particularly the National Democratic Coalition (NDC), which has been on the verge of internal implosion following the delayed release of its highly controversial primary results.
By enforcing the May 30 cutoff, the commission has effectively locked out late-stage electoral arrangements, leaving party hierarchies that hoarded or delayed their official certified lists in a dangerous legal limbo.
According to senior administrative officials at the commission’s headquarters, the hard deadline is non-negotiable. Any primary election organized outside the approved schedule violates the Electoral Act, meaning that any candidate produced from such exercises cannot legally appear on the ballot for the upcoming general elections.
Backdoor Candidates and Primary Disputes Locked Out
The timing of the enforcement provides a major blow to aggrieved aspirants who have been stranded in Abuja funded by staggering daily logistics bills:
- The NDC Crisis: National Democratic Coalition aspirants, like Imo State House of Representatives candidate Chidi Mike, who spent over ₦1 million daily in Abuja waiting for headquarters to release primary results, now face structural exclusion if their state chapters failed to conduct valid exercises before the May 30 threshold.
- Backdoor Infiltration Curbed: The declaration effectively neutralizes the fraudulent rosters manufactured by party bosses, where non-members without waivers or aspirants who used armed thugs—such as the documented rigging cases in Anambra State involving Okonkwo Okom—were being pushed onto the central portal past the regulated window.
- The Legislative Scramble: Incumbent lawmakers who recently dumped the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for opposition blocs like the PRP and ADC to secure alternative tickets after losing their party primaries are now rushing their legal teams to verify the exact timestamps of their nomination paperwork.
Political Parties Launch Emergency Court Appeals
In response to the sudden lockout, a coalition of opposition party chairmen has initiated emergency legal filings to compel the electoral umpire to extend the submission window. They argue that widespread internal fractures, logistical delays, and acute security challenges—such as the recent mass kidnappings and weapons heists disrupting administrative movements across Kwara, Oyo, and Borno States—made absolute compliance impossible.
