Just In: Kano NDC Blames Technical Error For Gwarzo’s Omission From INEC’s Guber Candidate List

The Kano State chapter of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) has attributed the omission of its governorship candidate, Comrade Aminu Abdussalam Gwarzo, and his running mate, Mustapha Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, from the list of candidates published by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to a technical error.

The party’s state chairman, Hussaini Isah Mairiga, said the names of the two candidates would be uploaded by Tuesday, expressing confidence that the issue would be resolved.

Mairiga, who spoke in a telephone interview with LEADERSHIP, insisted that Gwarzo and Kwankwaso remained the party’s governorship candidate and running mate, respectively, ahead of the 2027 general elections.

He said he had contacted the party officials responsible for uploading the candidates’ names and was also in touch with INEC officials at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja to address the omission.

“By Tuesday, Insha Allah, everything will be okay. People will see our candidate’s name,” he said.

The NDC chairman explained that the omission was not limited to Kano State, claiming that candidates of the party in some other states had also been affected by the same problem.

He cited Kaduna State as one of the states where the party’s candidates were reportedly omitted, adding that a candidate in Katsina State had initially appeared as a placeholder before the name was subsequently updated.

Mairiga maintained that the Kano candidates had fulfilled the party’s membership requirements and faced no obstacle to their candidacy.

“Our candidate has his membership card. If somebody is not a member of the party, he cannot contest. His name is already there; he does not have any problem,” he said.

The chairman also confirmed that the name of the party’s Kano North senatorial candidate, Nasiru Sule Garo, was missing from the published list.

He said the party had affirmed Garo as its candidate and was working to ensure that his name was uploaded.

INEC’s list, published on its official website on Saturday evening, contained the names of governorship candidates and their running mates from 17 political parties ahead of the 2027 general elections.

The list included Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf and his running mate, Murtala Sule Garo, as candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC), while Abacha Muhammad Sani and Kibiya Yusuf Ado were listed for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Other parties represented on the list included the African Democratic Congress (ADC), the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

When contacted for clarification on the NDC candidates’ omission, the state INEC Head of Department for Election and Party Monitoring, Hauwa, referred inquiries to the commission’s headquarters in Abuja.

She explained that the state office had forwarded the list of all aspirants to the headquarters.

As of the time of filing this report, INEC had yet to provide further clarification on the omission, while the NDC maintained that the affected candidates’ names would be uploaded by Tuesday.