A chieftain of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), Engr. Buba Galadima, has said that all the by-elections organised by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Saturday, August 16, 2025, were illegally conducted.
He said this is because INEC violated a section of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which stipulates that the commission is under obligation to conduct a by-election within three months whenever a vacancy occurs.
Galadima stated this when he appeared on Channels TV’s current affairs programme, ‘Politics Today’, which was monitored by our correspondent on Monday night.
Galadima noted that some of the vacancies where INEC conducted by-elections had exceeded the three-month constitutional deadline, urging Nigerians to challenge INEC in court.
He said: “Well, the by-elections have come and gone, except it’s being trailed by so many issues, depending from which side of point you look at it.
“In the first place, I want to make a very important issue out of these by-elections. In fact, all of them were conducted illegally by INEC.
“When a vacancy occurs, INEC is under obligation to conduct a by-election within three months.
“Some of the by-elections are being held two years after. For example, the ones in Kano, or at least one in Kano, it was an election that was declared inconclusive by the APC in 2023 (elections).
“So if the judiciary is upright, and if anybody goes to court to challenge those elections, they could be declared null and void because that is what the Constitution says, not even the Electoral Act.
“This is because when a vacancy occurs, INEC is under obligation to conduct by-election within three months. Some of the by-elections are being held two years after,” he said.
Galadima, who also alleged that the Federal Government was plotting to rig the 2027 general election, however, said the opposition NNPP will teach the government a lesson in the coming general election.
He said, “What is going on is very easy, what this government is planning is to rig election in 2027. From their antics, they say it. When they go to a governor to ask him to decamp, if you don’t decamp, we will take away the power from you, not that we will get you to be voted out. That’s what they do and they don’t understand.”
The NNPP chieftain stated that Nigerian politics was full of opportunists, noting that despite his struggles, he has not been elected into any elective position because he’s considered a ‘bad politician’ in the context of Nigerian politics.
“There aren’t any politicians in the country, only usurpers in politics, there aren’t politicians, only opportunists in politics..I’m a bad one (politician), that is why I have never been a councillor throughout my life despite the struggle.
“My daughter was elected and not appointed, if you are appointed, it means that you must have taken salaries, which she has never done.
Even her parting gift where she was a councillor, up till now they refused to give her because she is my daughter.
“In the Nigerian context, I’m the worst man, not even a bad man because Nigeria doesn’t like my type. I’m somebody who will look you straight in the eyes and tell you what you don’t want to hear, but it’s the truth,” he added.
Galadima dismissed insinuations that the former presidential candidate of NNPP, Senatoe Rabiu Musa Kwankwso, was going to join the APC, saying the latter was one politician the ruling party dreaded.
“He (Kwankwaso) is the strongest political Iroko in this country today because he fought the APC and he defeated them in their game in Kano. That’s the only place we conducted, we canvassed for votes in by-elections. If all politicians in Nigeria would be like Kwankwaso, then nobody can do the nonsense they are thinking they can do,” he said.
Galadima also mulled a plant to stage a one-man protest to the National Assembly over the ongoing Constitution amendment exercise, saying it was not in good faith.
