The African Democratic Congress came out swinging Tuesday, accusing Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission of engineering procedural traps designed to shut the party out of the 2027 general elections before a single vote is cast.

In a detailed statement signed by national publicity secretary Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC said INEC has refused to receive any correspondence from the party, citing a matter pending before the Federal High Court.

The problem, according to the ADC, is that the Electoral Act sets a hard May 10 deadline for parties to submit critical documents, and INEC’s communication freeze makes it impossible to meet that window.

“INEC is effectively threatening that unless the courts deliver judgment on the ADC leadership issue by May 10, it will prevent the ADC from producing candidates,” the statement read. “That is the landmine.”

A recognition INEC now denies

The ADC’s frustration runs deeper than a filing deadline. The party says INEC initially did everything right. It received formal notice of a National Executive Committee meeting held July 29, 2025, deployed monitors, documented the proceedings and subsequently uploaded new leadership details, including former Senate President David Mark as national chairman and former Ogun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola as national secretary.

That recognition, the ADC says, is now being quietly walked back.

The party pointed to INEC’s own sworn affidavit filed before the Federal High Court in September 2025, which affirmed the leadership transition had been completed and that internal party matters fall outside judicial interference. The commission’s recent reversal, the ADC argues, directly contradicts its own legal position.

“The same commission that monitored, documented, recognized and swore to an affidavit confirming the ADC leadership is now acting in a way that contradicts its earlier position,” the statement said.

Obi camp trains its sights on APC

The day’s political temperature climbed further when Peter Obi’s media office accused the All Progressives Congress of orchestrating a campaign to deny the 2023 Labour Party presidential candidate a path to the 2027 ballot.

Spokesman Ibrahim Umar said the prolonged crisis inside the Labour Party, which Obi exited Dec. 31, 2025, was not organic but a manufactured destabilization effort.

He also pointed to what he described as a manipulated reinterpretation of an Appeals Court ruling that contributed to the ADC leadership dispute now before the courts.

APC national chairman’s spokesman Abimbola Tooki dismissed the allegations flatly. “They have been jumping from party to party and having problems in all the parties,” he said, adding that INEC’s guidelines apply equally across parties and that the APC has no interest in managing another party’s internal chaos.

ADC youths draw a hard line

The party’s youth wing was not inclined to wait. National youth leader Balarabe Rufa’i told reporters at ADC’s Abuja headquarters that the commission had 72 hours to restore the Mark-led leadership on its official portal or face coordinated protests in all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

Civil society organization CISLAC backed the call. Executive director Auwal Rafsanjani warned that INEC’s handling of the situation risks eroding public trust in Nigeria’s electoral system at one of its most contested moments.

“INEC must not truncate democracy,” Rafsanjani said. “It should concentrate on delivering free, fair and credible elections, not actions that suggest a state-managed process.”