INEC's 28 governorship lists carry 420 tickets. The NDC has none in Kano or Nasarawa but fields Assembly candidates in 63 of their 64 seats

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has now posted final governorship candidate lists for all 28 states that vote for governors on 6 February 2027. The five that were missing from its website on the evening of 10 October, Cross River, Delta, Nasarawa, Niger and Rivers, were on it on 11 October, and Vero Record downloaded and counted them. They add 73 tickets, taking the national field to 420. Six of the 28 lists have no entry for the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), among them Kano and Nasarawa. Yet INEC's own State House of Assembly list, published on 10 October, gives the NDC a candidate in all 40 Kano constituencies and in 23 of Nasarawa's 24. The governorship lists do not say why the party has no ticket in either state.

The Rivers list runs to four pages and names 19 tickets. Entry 5, on page 2, is "CHINDA KINGSLEY OGUNDU", aged 60, under the party abbreviation "APC", with Jack Major Miakiapuye, 52, as his running mate; the remarks column is blank. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) entry names Ejekwu Samuel Soni, 60, the NDC entry Lilu-Briggs Dumo Owukori, 62, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) entry Pidomson Gabriel Baritulem, 56, and the Labour Party entry Boms Chima Ernest, 59. One Rivers ticket is headed by a woman, Ivy West, 47, printed as "WEST IVY", for the African Action Congress. Six of the 19 running mates are women. Action Alliance, the Young Progressives Party and the Youth Party have no Rivers entry.

Mr Chinda's place on the ballot has been contested in public. Legit reported on 29 September that the Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners had asked INEC to disqualify him after a Supreme Court judgment on the Electoral Act's provisions on party membership registers, and that the Parliament Support Network rejected the call, citing the Rivers APC's position that he joined the party 24 days before the primary, above a 21-day threshold. The final list prints him as the APC candidate with no remark. It does not record what, if anything, INEC decided on that request, and it cannot settle the legal argument. Nothing in it suggests wrongdoing by Mr Chinda or anyone else.

Nasarawa's list has 13 tickets on three pages, in alphabetical order of party. On page 2 the Labour Party at entry 7 is followed directly by the National Rescue Movement (NRM) at entry 8, where an NDC entry would fall. Daily Trust reported on 31 August that the candidates' particulars INEC had published then for Nasarawa named 15 tickets, among them Dogo Danladi Shammah for the NDC, Abdullah Bukhari for Action Alliance and Shuaibu Umaru Kubi for Accord. None of those three names, and none of those three parties, is on the final list. The NRM, which Daily Trust did not list, now has a ticket, headed by Khalid Muhammad, 55. Fifteen tickets less three plus one gives the 13 on the final list. Vero Record has not seen the August particulars and relies on Daily Trust's account of them.

Two other Nasarawa entries changed in the direction the parties themselves had described. Daily Trust reported that the August particulars named Musa Adamu Angba as the Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate and the Allied Peoples Movement's state chairman, Mohammed Awwal Suleiman, for the APM, and quoted Mr Angba as ready to give the ticket to the former Inspector-General of Police Mohammed Abubakar Adamu "if the need arises", and Mr Suleiman as saying there was "an arrangement to hand over the mandate to Senator Onawo within the substitution window". The final list's SDP entry, number 11, is "MOHAMMED ABUBAKAR ADAMU", 65, and its APM entry, number 5, is "ONAWO MOHAMMED OGOSHI", 74. The list gives no occupations or titles, so it does not itself identify them as the former police chief and the senator for Nasarawa South. The APC entry names Aliyu Ahmed Wadada, 61, the PDP Emmanuel David Ombugadu, 48, and the ADC Nuhu Angbazo, 59.

Kano's list, posted on 10 October, has 17 tickets. On page 3 the Labour Party at entry 12 is followed by the National Democratic Party at entry 13, again with no NDC entry between them. Ripples Nigeria reported on 30 August that the earlier particulars named Aminu Gwarzo as the NDC's Kano candidate, Mohammed Raji for Labour and Muhammad Dalhatu for the PDP. The final list names Santuraki Hamisu, 52, for Labour and Abacha Muhammed Sani, 59, for the PDP. A search of all 28 governorship lists and the 693-page Assembly list finds "Gwarzo" only as the name of a Kano Assembly constituency and in one PDP Assembly candidate's name there, Isyaku Lawan Gwarzo, and "Abdussalam" only in a Zamfara Assembly candidate's name. Neither the list nor any INEC document Vero Record found explains the change.

Kano and Nasarawa are two of six states with no NDC governorship ticket; the others are Cross River, Kaduna, Kebbi and Ogun. In each, the same party has Assembly candidates in all or nearly all constituencies: 25 of 25 in Cross River, 34 of 34 in Kaduna, 40 of 40 in Kano, 22 of 24 in Kebbi, 23 of 24 in Nasarawa (none in Keffi East) and 26 of 26 in Ogun, so 170 of 173 seats. The documents establish that the party was able to field candidates in those states. They do not show whether it submitted governorship nominations there, or whether any was withdrawn, substituted or refused.

Of the other new lists, Delta has 18 tickets, with Oborevwori Sheriff Francis Orohwedor, 63, for the APC, Mrakpor Peter Adogbejire, 61, for the PDP, Ogboru Ovedje Great, 68, for the ADC, and Iyovwaye Chris, 62, printed as female, for the NDC; Ripples reported 16 Delta candidates in the August particulars. Delta's entry 17 is the first governorship ticket on any list for the Youth Party (YP), so all 22 registered parties now appear on the governorship lists, against 21 on 10 October. Niger has 15 tickets, with Mohammed Umaru Bago, 52, for the APC, Muhammad Mamman Nami, 58, for the PDP and Muhammad Yahaya Adam, 35, for the NDC. Cross River has eight, the smallest field in the country: AA, ADP, APC, APM, APP, Labour, NRM and PDP, with Otu Bassey Edet, 66, for the APC and Archibong Arthur Javis, 64, for the PDP. It is the only state without an ADC ticket.

Added to the 347 tickets in the 23 states counted on 10 October, the 73 new tickets give 420, or 840 names with running mates. The All Progressives Congress and the Action Democratic Party field a ticket in all 28 states, the ADC and the APM in 27, the Action Peoples Party in 26, the PDP and Labour in 25 each, the SDP in 23 and the NDC and the Zenith Labour Party in 22 each. Akwa Ibom keeps the largest field, 20, followed by Rivers and Taraba with 19. Every list's serial numbers run from 1 without a gap, which is how the counts were checked.

Women head five of the 73 new tickets, two in Cross River, two in Delta and one in Rivers, so 25 of 420 nationally, 5.95 per cent; 15 of the 28 states have at least one. Women are 13 of the 73 new running mates and 94 of 420 overall, 22.38 per cent, so 119 of the 840 names, 14.17 per cent. Governorship candidates are aged 35 to 76, with a median of 53, and 41 are under 40.

Two gaps remain. The State House of Assembly list on INEC's site on 11 October is the same file, byte for byte, as the copy Vero Record downloaded on 10 October, and it still has no Borno entries. INEC's site also still carries no document giving the 103,428,715 registered voters reported on 6 October, or a state breakdown, so the register figures Vero Record tested that day still rest on press reports. The new lists' file data record their creation between 18:29 and 20:04 UTC on 10 October; they do not show when they were posted. Section 31 of the Electoral Act 2026 lets a party withdraw a candidate until 90 days before the election, 8 November 2026, which is 28 days from 11 October. Vero Record did not put questions to INEC, the NDC, the APC, the SDP, the APM or any candidate for this report.

What this rests on

Downloaded from inecnigeria.org on 11 October 2026 and read: final governorship lists for Rivers (4 pp.), Delta (3 pp.), Nasarawa (3 pp.), Niger (3 pp.) and Cross River (2 pp.), at https://inecnigeria.org/documents/FINAL%20LIST%20-%20<STATE>%20STATE%20GOVERNORSHIP.pdf, the same pattern as the 23 lists of 10 October; each page signed by Rose Oriaran-Anthony, Secretary, INEC. PDF creation times (UTC, 10 October): Rivers 18:29:16, Nasarawa 18:33:32, Cross River 18:36:30, Delta 19:23:00, Niger 20:04:08. INEC's 2027 General Elections Update page on 11 October lists 28 governorship documents. Rows extracted with PyMuPDF using table cell boundaries, with the INEC watermark text removed (the parse_clean.py method of 10 October), serial numbers checked to run 1 to n without a gap in each list: Rivers 1 to 19, Delta 1 to 18, Niger 1 to 15, Nasarawa 1 to 13, Cross River 1 to 8. New tickets 19 + 18 + 15 + 13 + 8 = 73. National total 347 (23 states, 10 October) + 73 = 420 tickets in 23 + 5 = 28 states; 420 x 2 = 840 names. By party, 28 states: ADP 28 + APC 28 + ADC 27 + APM 27 + APP 26 + LP 25 + PDP 25 + SDP 23 + NDC 22 + ZLP 22 + NRM 21 + NDP 19 + APGA 18 + AAC 17 + NNPP 16 + PRP 16 + A 14 + YPP 13 + AA 12 + DLA 12 + BP 8 + YP 1 = 420 (22 parties; YP, Youth Party, in Delta only, entry 17, p.3). New five states by party: ADP 5 + APC 5 + APM 5 + APP 5 + LP 5 + PDP 5 + ADC 4 + PRP 4 + SDP 4 + ZLP 4 + AAC 3 + APGA 3 + NDC 3 + NRM 3 + A 2 + AA 2 + BP 2 + DLA 2 + NDP 2 + NNPP 2 + YPP 2 + YP 1 = 73. Absent parties: Cross River 14 of 22 absent (8 present, 8 + 14 = 22); Delta APGA, NDP, NRM, YPP (18 + 4 = 22); Nasarawa A, AA, AAC, BP, DLA, NDC, NDP, NNPP, YP (13 + 9 = 22); Niger A, AA, BP, DLA, NNPP, NRM, YP (15 + 7 = 22); Rivers AA, YP, YPP (19 + 3 = 22). NDC absent from governorship lists of Cross River, Kaduna, Kano, Kebbi, Nasarawa, Ogun (28 - 6 = 22). NDC Assembly constituencies (Assembly final list, 693 pp., parsed 10 October): Cross River 25/25 (pp.152 to 164), Kaduna 34/34 (pp.302 to 323), Kano 40/40 (pp.324 to 353), Kebbi 22/24 (pp.371 to 382; none in Koko/Besse, Wasagu/Danko West), Nasarawa 23/24 (pp.447 to 466; none in Keffi East), Ogun 26/26 (pp.486 to 508); 25 + 34 + 40 + 22 + 23 + 26 = 170 of 25 + 34 + 40 + 24 + 24 + 26 = 173. Kano and Nasarawa: 40 + 23 = 63 of 40 + 24 = 64. Nasarawa reconciliation with Daily Trust's 31 August account of the earlier particulars: 15 named tickets (APC, SDP, APP, LP, ADC, PDP, APGA, ADP, PRP, ZLP, APM, AA, YPP, NDC, Accord) - 3 not on final list (AA, NDC, Accord) + 1 not in Daily Trust's list (NRM) = 13. Final Nasarawa entries: 5 APM Onawo Mohammed Ogoshi 74 (p.1), 7 LP, 8 NRM Khalid Muhammad 55, 11 SDP Mohammed Abubakar Adamu 65 (p.2). Kano (gov-kano.pdf of 10 October, 17 entries): p.3 entry 12 LP Santuraki Hamisu 52, 13 NDP, 14 PDP Abacha Muhammed Sani 59. Name searches across all 420 governorship rows and 9,802 Assembly rows: GWARZO 1 hit (Kano, Gwarzo constituency, PDP, Isyaku Lawan Gwarzo, p.336); ABDUSSALAM 1 hit (Zamfara, Talata Mafara South, AAC, Sani Abdussalam, p.688); SHAMMAH 0. Rivers entry 5 (p.2): Chinda Kingsley Ogundu, APC, 60; deputy Jack Major Miakiapuye, 52; remarks blank. Women: governorship 20 (10 October) + 5 (Cross River 2, Delta 2, Rivers 1) = 25; 25 / 420 = 5.95 per cent; states with a woman governorship candidate 12 + 3 = 15 of 28. Deputies 81 + 13 (Delta 3, Nasarawa 1, Niger 3, Rivers 6) = 94; 94 / 420 = 22.38 per cent; 25 + 94 = 119; 119 / 840 = 14.17 per cent. Rivers women deputies 6 of 19. Ages: governorship 35 to 76, median 53 over 420; under 40: 34 + 7 (Cross River 2, Delta 3, Nasarawa 1, Niger 1) = 41. Largest fields: Akwa Ibom 20, Rivers 19, Taraba 19; smallest Cross River 8 (previous smallest Katsina 11). Assembly list on 11 October: 4,091,893 bytes, identical byte for byte to the 10 October copy; still no Borno entries. INEC register document: none found on the Update page, or in the site's script bundle that lists its documents, on 11 October. Dates: 11 October 2026 to 8 November 2026 = 20 + 8 = 28 days; 6 February 2027 minus 90 days = 8 November 2026 (22 + 31 + 31 + 6 = 90); 11 October 2026 to 6 February 2027 = 20 + 30 + 31 + 31 + 6 = 118 days.

What this does not establish

Why the NDC has no governorship ticket in Kano, Nasarawa, Cross River, Kaduna, Kebbi or Ogun: whether it submitted nominations there, or whether any was withdrawn, substituted or refused. The lists carry no explanation and Vero Record did not contact INEC or the NDC. The August particulars that reportedly named Aminu Gwarzo (Kano) and Dogo Danladi Shammah (Nasarawa) for the NDC were not seen; those accounts rest on Ripples Nigeria (30 August) and Daily Trust (31 August). Whether the Mohammed Abubakar Adamu and Onawo Mohammed Ogoshi on the Nasarawa list are the former Inspector-General and the Nasarawa South senator Daily Trust named: the list gives no occupations. Whether INEC acted on the request to disqualify Kingsley Chinda, and how any court would rule on the membership-register question: the list records only that he is the APC candidate, with no remark. When the five new lists were posted: their file data give creation times on 10 October, not upload times. Why Borno's Assembly entries are still missing. Whether INEC has a document behind the reported 103,428,715-voter register. Some entries on 23 of the 28 lists, among them Nasarawa's entries 5, 7 and 11 and Kano's 13, are printed in bold on a shaded band; the lists carry no key, and Vero Record draws no inference from it. Whether the lists displayed at INEC offices match the website copies.