CITIZENS COMPASS— The Coalition Against Corruption And Bad Governance (CACOBAG) on Monday, blamed the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and National Assembly for the possible collapse of the 2027 general elections in Nigeria.
CACOBAG heaped the blame in a statement signed by its chairman, Prince Toyin Raheem.
The press statement was in conjunction with the Centre for Democracy and Justice (CDJ).
According to CACOBAG and CDJ, the statement followed the final list of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) which omitted the names of some candidates of the opposition parties.
The groups urged Nigerians to hold APC, Tinubu and National Assembly responsible incase democracy is truncated in the country.
According to the statement: If democracy is truncated or the 2027 general elections fail, history must record clearly who should be blamed: The All Progressives Congress (APC) as a party, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the National Assembly populated by APC majority, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and a complicit section of the Judiciary.
The final list of candidates for 2027 governorship and National Assembly elections released by INEC on 10th October, 2026 shows a dangerous pattern of omission and selective justice.
The affected candidates cut across party lines. We are for the defence of democracy.
– PDP: Hon. Oladipupo Adebutu and his Deputy in Ogun State, Dr. Isa Ali Pantami in Gombe State, Hon. Garba Lado in Katsina;
– Other Parties: Aminu Abdussalam Gwarzo (NDC, Kano), Pailin Igwe (ADC, Ebonyi), Taiwo Onifade (NNPP, Lagos), and several Labour Party, APM and ADP candidates in Kwara, Benue, Delta, Abia and Lagos State among other parties;
– Even APC Itself: This illegality is not limited to opposition. APC as an anti-people’s party also did it to some of its own members in Lagos State. In Agege Constituency I, Hon. Ganiyu Kola Egunjobi who polled 9,132 votes in APC primaries duly monitored by INEC, was fraudulently replaced with a different name by the APC leadership, and INEC shamefully accepted such violation. Similar impositions occurred in Alimosho and Ikeja.
It is instructive that INEC also deliberately removed the name of *Comrade Hashim Olawepo as presidential candidate of Accord Party, one of the most intelligent, best and pro-people candidates for the 2027 general election, and it was only the timely intervention of the judiciary that restored him. The candidate of NDC for governorship in Kano State was also removed for fear of dislodging APC completely in that state.
If not for collaboration of INEC with the APC ruling party, how do you explain this contradiction? The Electoral Act 2026 as amended makes primary election compulsory by Direct Primary, Affirmation or Consensus and mandates that every primary must be monitored by INEC. INEC officials were physically present, recorded results, signed result sheets, took videos and declared winners.
Section 31 and Section 84(5) & (6) of the same Electoral Act clearly stipulates that a validly nominated candidate whose name was submitted can only be removed if he withdraws voluntarily in writing, with a letter personally signed and delivered to his party with an affidavit. None of the affected winners withdrew in writing. Yet their names disappeared and political parties were allowed to present names other than those recorded by INEC as winners when the winners did not withdraw in writing as the Electoral Act stipulates.
This means INEC is not independent or does not know its responsibilities to the country and the people. What a shame and international embarrassment! An electoral umpire failing to abide by the rule it made and monitored.
We are for whoever Nigeria chooses freely. It would not have been funny if the name of Prince Adebayo Adewole of SDP, candidate backed by Afenifere, or the People’s President, Omoyele Sowore of AAC, or Alhaji Abubakar Atiku and Mr. Peter Obi of ADC and Seyi Makinde of APM were removed from INEC list because of their prominence and vantage position they have in the next general election. Today it is Gwarzo, Adebutu, Egunjobi and Pantami, tomorrow it could be any other person. An injury to one is an injury to all.
The hurried passage of the Electoral Act 2026 by a National Assembly dominated by APC, which now mandates that only members whose names appear on a party register submitted to INEC months earlier can vote or be voted for in primaries, is anti-democratic, retrogressive and tailor-made to entrench APC. It is a law made not for Nigerians but for Bola Tinubu and APC to win forcefully by sidelining better and more credible candidates.
Worse is INEC’s policy of compulsory online membership registration in a country ranked among the worst in internet penetration and digital literacy in the world, in a country where there is no free, compulsory education for all including adult education, in a country where over 130 million Nigerians cannot afford just one meal, not to talk of two square meals let alone three, yet INEC now insists that every Nigerian must register as a member of a political party through online portals requiring Android phones of N200,000 and above, or go to business centres to pay money meant for food and school fees at cyber cafes they cannot monitor, verify or retrieve. This is not only wicked but a calculated disenfranchisement.
This violates Section 40 which guarantees freedom of association and political participation, Section 42 and Section 77(2) which says every citizen has the right to vote and be voted for without undue clogs.
To INEC: The electoral umpire has abandoned neutrality. It has become a department of the ruling party. An umpire that creates impossible conditions and accepts replacement of validly elected candidates cannot be trusted to conduct credible elections. INEC should be an impartial arbiter, not a political undertaker.
This is the same INEC that could not remove the name of Dapo Abiodun as Senatorial candidate in Ogun State in the next election despite weighty petitions against him on his academic certificate and alleged discrepancies. INEC claimed it lacked powers to disqualify him, yet the same INEC is now usurping powers to disqualify candidates who won clean primaries monitored by its own officials. This selective application of power shows INEC’s partiality and lack of independence.
In Ogun State, an APC candidate is being condemned for perjury, but he chose to callously and narrowly convert the matter to an issue of state of origin which is unconstitutional. One would have expected INEC to remove such a name to clarify the issue of perjury. Or does INEC not have records of oaths sworn in previous elections and his present oath? Perjury is a crime. Section 118 and Section 156 of the Penal Code and the Constitution are clear on this.
To APC and President Tinubu: You are ruling but ruining our economy. You met a bag of rice at N35,000, now it is unaffordable due to its present price. You met fuel at N195, now it is over N1,400. A bag of cement is now N15000 per bag. N1000 had value when you took over, now it is valueless. Instead of fixing hunger, you are fixing elections, manipulating the system to favour your party. History will hold you responsible if this democracy collapses.
To the National Assembly: You were elected to make laws for peace, order and good governance, not laws for self-preservation of APC. Your retrogressive amendments offend the spirit and letter of the Constitution.
We are conscious of the deluge of petitions against many of you at the EFCC over looted public funds, hence you feel that passing anti-people and anti-progressive laws to satisfy the Executive could save you from investigation and prosecution. It cannot, because you are acting against the people. If not now, you will face the music in the future. Criminality and corruption are not time-bound, there is no statute of limitation for breach of public trust.
More alarming is another dangerous amendment you smuggled into the Electoral Act, where you stated that whoever’s certificate or qualification was not challenged before the election for forgery, falsification, impersonation or any perjury cannot be used or raised at the election tribunal after the election. You have only shot yourselves in the leg. It cannot stand.
If it cannot go to tribunal, it will go to regular court because certificate forgery is a criminal offence and criminality is not time-bound. How will a certificate forger be allowed to hold political office simply because it was not raised before election? Even if it is discovered after the election, such a person must be dealt with from the point of law. So those using forged certificates should not relax and rejoice based on such illegal provision, which is a nullity as it is against the 1999 Constitution.
It is like saying someone holding a full-time political office and simultaneously claiming to have acquired a full-time Law degree at the same period should not be interrogated. Was he granted a leave of absence as a legislator and did he take salary and allowances from the people’s money? We shall interrogate it. The National Assembly is working against the people.
In other climes, this cannot stand. In the United States, certificate forgery and perjury disqualified George Santos from Congress in 2023 despite being elected. In the United Kingdom, the law does not protect forgers because of election timelines. In South Africa, lying under oath is criminal and can remove a President even after election. Nigeria cannot be an exception or be granted exemption where criminals are protected by retrogressive law.
To the Judiciary, particularly the Supreme Court: You must not allow politicians to destroy your hard-earned goodwill and integrity.
The groups placed their demands thus:
INEC must immediately restore all validly nominated candidates whose names were unjustly removed.
INEC must publish all results and videos of primary elections of all political parties monitored by it, and specifically must publish the full results and videos of the Labour Party primary elections in Lagos State which it monitored.
The National Assembly must repeal all retrogressive clauses in the Electoral Act 2026 that impose impossible membership registration and that attempt to protect certificate forgery from judicial scrutiny.
The Judiciary must not lend itself to legitimizing disenfranchisement and must void any substitution not backed by voluntary written withdrawal as stipulated by law.
We shall not fold our arms while democracy is murdered.
