• Sowore accuses party of making N9b from nomination forms, knocks Obi
• NDC opens new Abuja secretariat, unveils campaign council today

Five candidates of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) in Kano State have accused influential figures within the party of orchestrating a campaign to frustrate their candidature ahead of the forthcoming general elections.

Relatedly, the presidential candidate of African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore, accused the leaders of making N9 billion from the sale of nomination forms while allegedly running the party from their living rooms.

Meanwhile, the party will today activate a new phase of its preparations for the 2027 elections with the inauguration of its National Campaign Council, the commissioning of its national secretariat in Abuja and the presentation of Certificates of Return to its candidates.

The Kano candidates alleged that certain party officials were deploying protests, petitions and media campaigns to undermine their emergence, despite subsisting Federal High Court judgments affirming the candidature of two of them.

In a petition submitted to Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Kano office, addressed to Chairman of the Commission, the candidates urged the electoral umpire to resist calculated attempts to intimidate its officials and interfere with pending judicial proceedings.

The petition, signed by their counsel, Bola Aidi, SAN, was written in response to an earlier petition dated October 16, 2026, reportedly submitted by Tahir Chambers on behalf of the Kano State chapter of the NDC against an INEC official, Mrs. Hauwa Buhari.

The five affected candidates are Abdulmajid Isah Umar (Gwale), Shaaban Ibrahim Sharada (Kano Municipal), Ismaeel Idris Sani (Kumbotso), Ibrahim Bashiru Bango (Sumaila/Takai) and Nasir Alli Ahmed (Nasarawa).

The petition came few days after some members of the party under Kwankwasiyya Movement submitted similar complaints accusing an official of the commission of tampering with the party’s list.

SOWORE also criticised NDC presidential candidate, Peter Obi, accusing him of moving between political parties ahead of elections without a genuine commitment to challenging Nigeria’s political establishment.

The AAC candidate made the allegations in a statement posted on X, where he accused the NDC and Obi of exploiting public anger against the government rather than working towards the liberation of Nigerians.

“The same opportunists and packaged political frauds who made N9 billion from selling nomination forms while running a political party from their living rooms,” Sowore wrote, referring to the NDC.

THE three NDC events, scheduled for October 26, will bring the party’s national leadership and candidates together as it moves to strengthen its organisational structure and coordinate its campaign ahead of the general elections.

The commissioning of the new secretariat in Jabi at 2pm will precede the inauguration of the National Campaign Council at 5pm, while the day’s programme will begin with a meeting of the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) at 10am.

The NEC meeting will hold at the JD Vance Centre, opposite A-Class Park, Kashim Ibrahim Way, Maitama, Abuja. Attendance will be restricted to invited members of the committee.

In a statement yesterday, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Osa Director, said the campaign council inauguration would be followed by the presentation of Certificates of Return to the party’s candidates and a dinner.