The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Niger State has approached the Federal High Court in Minna, seeking to disqualify candidates of four opposition parties from participating in the 2027 general elections over alleged violations of the Electoral Act, 2026.
The affected parties are the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Social Democratic Party (SDP), Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) and African Democratic Congress (ADC).
The APC is challenging the eligibility of politicians who reportedly defected from the ruling party after losing its primary elections in May 2026.
Among those affected are PDP governorship candidate, Mohammed Mamman Nami; SDP governorship candidate, Mohammed Ndarani Mohammed; and ADC deputy governorship candidate, Musa Mamman.
Others include NDC and PDP Niger South Senatorial candidates, Sadiq Mohammed Rabiu and Peter Jiya, as well as several candidates contesting seats in the House of Representatives and Niger State House of Assembly.
In the suit, marked FHC/MN/2026, the APC questioned the validity of their nominations, arguing that they were not registered members of the opposition parties when the statutory deadline for submitting membership registers to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) expired.
The party claimed that the affected politicians remained APC members between April 21 and May 10, 2026, when political parties were required to submit their digital membership registers to INEC.
According to the APC, the politicians only joined the opposition parties after participating in and losing the ruling party’s primary elections in May.
It argued that their names were therefore missing from the membership registers submitted by the parties that later nominated them.
The APC is relying on Section 77, subsections 5 and 7 of the Electoral Act, 2026, which it says restrict participation in party primaries to registered members whose names appear in membership registers submitted to INEC.
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The party also questioned INEC’s decision to publish the candidates’ names on October 10 and issue a related statement on October 13, despite the alleged failure to meet the legal requirements.
Its legal team, which includes six Senior Advocates of Nigeria, also cited a September 24, 2026 Supreme Court judgment in INEC v. Zenith Labour Party and others.
The APC argued that INEC applied the Supreme Court’s position in governorship contests in other states but failed to address the eligibility of the affected candidates in Niger State.
The party is asking the court to declare the candidates ineligible, nullify INEC’s publication of their names and direct the commission to remove them from the list of candidates for the 2027 elections.
It also wants an order stopping INEC from recognising the affected politicians or including their names on ballot papers.
The case is yet to be assigned a hearing date.
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