2027 List: Ex-IGP Adamu, Buba, Chinda, Others Who Escaped INEC’s Hammer

Former Inspector-General of Police Mohammed Adamu, former Deputy Senate President Ovie Omo-Agege, former Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Kingsley Chinda, and Senator Saliu Mustapha are among prominent politicians who have made the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) final lists of candidates for the 2027 elections.

They were among those with uncertainty over the implications of a Supreme Court judgment on party membership registers.

On September 24, 2026, the apex court affirmed key provisions of the Electoral Act 2026 on party membership registers and participation in primaries.

Section 77 of the Electoral Act requires parties to submit their membership registers to INEC not later than 21 days before their primaries, congresses or conventions.

Only members whose names appear on the submitted registers are eligible to vote or be voted for in those exercises.

Daily Trust reports that the controversy was rooted in a legal battle over whether the National Assembly could impose strict conditions on political parties’ membership registers and nomination procedures.

The Zenith Labour Party challenged the provisions, arguing that they interfered with the constitutional autonomy of political parties. The Federal High Court dismissed the suit in May, but the Court of Appeal struck down the disputed provisions in July, prompting INEC to approach the Supreme Court.

On September 24, the Supreme Court reversed the appellate court’s decision, restoring Sections 77(5)–(7) and 84(2) of the Electoral Act 2026.

The ruling re-established the requirement that parties use the membership registers submitted to INEC at least 21 days before their primaries, while also affirming the statutory framework for candidate nominations.

The timing proved politically consequential as several aspirants had already abandoned their former parties following disputed primaries, failed bids for tickets or disagreements with party leaderships.

While Nigerians awaited a definite pronouncement from Prof Joash Amupitan, INEC Chairman, at the Commission’s World Press Conference last week, the Chairman said the CTC of the judgment was being reviewed.

However, INEC’s National Commissioner for Information and Voter Education, Mohammed Haruna, gave a hint on the hammer against some politicians when he featured on Trust TV’s Daily Politics last week.

Haruna had said parties whose candidates were not members of the party at the time that they contested for tickets would not be allowed to participate in the elections.

When the final list was released by INEC on Saturday, some names were on the list, while some were conspicuously missing.

Below are names of some of the politicians considered to have escaped INEC’s hammer.

For former Inspector-General of Police Mohammed Adamu, the uncertainty surrounding the 2027 Nasarawa governorship election began before the Supreme Court delivered its judgment. He was an aspirant of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) who defected shortly before the primaries. Adamu later emerged as the Social Democratic Party’s candidate through a substitution primary in September after the withdrawal of the party’s previously listed nominee, Musa Angbazo.

The development followed an earlier INEC list that recognised Angbazo rather than Adamu, prompting the former police chief’s campaign organisation to insist that he was the authentic candidate. The dispute placed the SDP’s substitution process under scrutiny and raised questions about the circumstances in which Adamu’s name replaced that of the original nominee.

His campaign maintained that the substitution was valid and that the Supreme Court judgment neither disqualified him nor nullified the party’s membership register or direct primary.

The subsequent listing of Adamu by INEC represents a significant change from the uncertainty that followed the commission’s initial publication.

The Nasarawa SDP welcomed the development, saying it had eased speculation about the party’s participation in the election. Adamu’s case illustrates how the controversy extended beyond politicians who defected after losing primaries. It has also affected candidates whose emergence involved changes to previously submitted nominations.

His inclusion gives the SDP a recognised candidate on the published list, although any separate legal challenge would have to be determined on its own merits.

Kingsley Chinda’s emergence as the APC governorship candidate in Rivers State became one of the most closely watched cases after the Supreme Court judgment because of the sequence of events surrounding his move from the Peoples Democratic Party.

Chinda, a member of the House of Representatives and an ally of FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, emerged from the APC governorship primary held on May 21, 2026.

Reports on his political movement indicated that he registered with the APC on April 27, while his defection from the PDP was formally announced on June 2, after the primary had taken place. That chronology fuelled the central question whether Chinda satisfied the membership requirements applicable to participation in the APC primary and whether his name appeared on the register submitted to INEC within the statutory period.

The issue is politically significant in Rivers, where Wike’s relationship with the APC-led Federal Government and his rivalry with Governor Siminalayi Fubara have shaped the state’s political alignments. Chinda’s candidacy is not merely a question of party substitution but part of a contest over political influence in a state that has remained a major battleground since the 2023 elections.

The Rivers APC has defended his candidacy, while his appearance on INEC’s final list means the commission has published him as the party’s candidate. Whether any challenge to the process succeeds would depend on the applicable records and legal proceedings, not simply on the timing of his public defection.

Former Deputy Senate President Ovie Omo-Agege’s case presents another version of the membership-register controversy, this time involving a move to a new political platform after losing a party primary. Omo-Agege contested the APC senatorial primary for Delta Central in May but lost to incumbent Senator Ede Dafinone.

He resigned from the APC on May 22, 2026, and subsequently joined the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), which granted him a waiver to contest its Delta Central senatorial primary. He secured the ticket through a consensus arrangement.

The sequence raised questions about whether the NDC’s waiver and nomination arrangements complied with the statutory requirements governing party membership and participation in primaries.

In particular, the timing of his entry into the party became relevant because the restored provisions require parties to use membership registers submitted to INEC within the prescribed period.

Politically, Omo-Agege’s move reflects the struggle for relevance and representation that follows the disputed primaries. A former deputy Senate president who once occupied a prominent position within the APC, he is now seeking a return to the Senate through a different party. His inclusion on the final list places him in the contest for Delta Central under the NDC.

Senator Shehu Buba Umar’s emergence as the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) governorship candidate in Bauchi State followed a political rupture with the APC, the platform on which he initially sought to become the state’s next governor.

Buba, who represents Bauchi South in the Senate, declared his governorship ambition on the APC platform in April 2026, calling on the party to ensure a transparent primary and allow members to choose their candidate. His appeal reflected the competition among party stakeholders over who should succeed Governor Bala Mohammed in 2027.

After the APC nomination process, Buba moved to the PRP, where he was affirmed as the party’s governorship candidate at a special delegates’ congress on May 25. He subsequently announced that he had transferred his political structure to the PRP and obtained membership in his ward in Toro Local Government Area.

The move transformed him from an aspirant seeking the ruling party’s ticket into a candidate challenging for the governorship under an opposition platform. His candidacy became relevant to the controversy surrounding the Supreme Court’s restoration of the Electoral Act’s provisions on party membership registers.

The ruling heightened scrutiny of candidates who changed parties during the nomination period, particularly whether they were valid members of their new parties and whether their names appeared on the registers submitted to INEC within the statutory timeframe.

For Buba, the central issue was whether his transition from the APC to the PRP and his subsequent nomination satisfied the law’s requirements.

His supporters maintained that his candidacy complied with the relevant rules, while the wider debate over party registers created uncertainty for politicians who had changed platforms after disputes over tickets.

INEC’s publication of Buba as the PRP governorship candidate in Bauchi, alongside Aliyu Tijjani Mohammed as his running mate, provided an important measure of certainty for the party.

The commission’s publication under Section 29(3) of the Electoral Act 2026 had earlier been reported as confirming the authenticity of the PRP ticket. Buba welcomed the development, saying it had resolved the uncertainty surrounding his candidacy and those of the party’s other candidates.

Politically, Buba’s defection adds a serving senator with an established constituency to the contest for Bauchi Government House.

It also tests whether the PRP can turn the support of former APC stakeholders and Buba’s existing political network into a viable statewide platform. The party has presented his candidacy as an alternative to the established political forces in the state, while Buba has pledged to focus on security, agriculture, employment, education and healthcare.

His inclusion on INEC’s list places him among the candidates cleared for publication by the commission.

In Kwara State, Senator Saliu Mustapha’s candidacy has become part of the wider political realignment ahead of the 2027 elections. Mustapha left the APC in August after losing the party’s governorship primary to Speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly, Yakubu Danladi-Salihu, and failing to secure the APC senatorial ticket.

He subsequently joined the PDP and obtained its Kwara Central senatorial ticket through a substitution process.

INEC’s final list names him as the PDP candidate against Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, who is seeking the same Senate seat on the APC platform. The development carries implications beyond the individual contest.

Mustapha’s move is connected to divisions within the Kwara APC and the realignment of groups associated with the G-15, the OTOGE bloc and other political stakeholders. He has described his departure from the APC as a response to what he considers a departure from the party’s founding principles of internal democracy and collective participation.

His decision to adopt the PDP platform has also been presented by him as part of a coalition involving political groups, rather than a purely personal decision. That framing places the Kwara Central race within the wider contest over the future of the state’s political structure after the APC governorship primary.

The substitution through which Mustapha obtained the PDP ticket makes his case relevant to the debate over membership registers and nomination procedures. His appearance on INEC’s final list means he has been published as the PDP candidate.

Former Delta State House of Assembly Speaker, Victor Ochei, also attracted attention after leaving the APC and joining the NDC following the conclusion of the APC nomination process. Ochei obtained the NDC ticket for Delta North senatorial district after the party approved a waiver for him to participate in its primary on May 28, 2026.

His route to the ticket raised questions similar to those surrounding Omo-Agege whether a politician who joined a party after its membership-register deadline could lawfully participate in its nomination process. The two cases illustrate the difficulty facing parties seeking to accommodate experienced politicians who switch platforms after internal contests.

A party’s decision to grant a waiver may settle an internal political question, but it does not necessarily resolve whether the nomination meets statutory requirements.

Ochei’s inclusion on the list means he is published as the NDC candidate for Delta North. As with Omo-Agege, however, his appearance on the list should be distinguished from a court ruling on the legality of the process that produced him.heir emergence.

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