INEC's final Gombe governorship list names 16 candidates and none for the PDP. Pantami is on no list; 23 states' lists carry 347 tickets

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) published its final lists of candidates for the 6 February 2027 governorship and State House of Assembly elections on Saturday, 10 October 2026. The Gombe State governorship list names 16 tickets from 16 parties. None of them is for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and the name of Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, whom the PDP's Gombe chapter reportedly chose as its candidate in a court-ordered rerun on 29 September, appears nowhere on it. Vero Record downloaded all 23 governorship lists INEC has posted and the 693-page State House of Assembly list, counted every row, and searched every page for his name. It is on none of them, under any party. The lists do not say why.

The Gombe list runs to three pages, each signed by Rose Oriaran-Anthony, Secretary of the Commission. Its rows are in alphabetical order of party abbreviation, and on page 3 the National Rescue Movement (NRM) at entry 13 is followed directly by the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) at entry 14, where a PDP entry would fall. The All Progressives Congress (APC) entry, number 5, names Gwamna Jamil Isyaku, 60, with Balah Adams, 63, as running mate. The African Democratic Congress (ADC) fields Bala Bello, 58, and the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) Ardo Babayo Kumo, 62. Five of the 21 parties that appear on the governorship lists have no Gombe entry: the PDP, Action Alliance, APGA, the Boot Party and the Young Progressives Party. The PDP is not absent from Gombe altogether: the Assembly list gives it a candidate in all 24 of the state's constituencies.

INEC first published candidates' personal particulars on Saturday, 29 August, according to Leadership, which reported that in Gombe they included "Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami of the PDP" and "Sadiq Abubakar of the NDC", and quoted the commission's Gombe spokesman, Mohorret Bigun, as saying the document "is not the final list". Vero Record has not seen that earlier document. On the final list, the NDC's Gombe candidate is Ardo Babayo Kumo. Leadership reported Mr Pantami's absence from the final list at 19:46 Nigerian time on 10 October. The PDP's absence is not unique to Gombe: it has no governorship entry in Kebbi or Ogun either. The New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) has none in Kano. Vero Record reported on 30 September that the date on which Mr Pantami's name reached a PDP membership register filed with INEC had never been made public. Nothing on the final lists answers that question.

Across the 23 states posted, the governorship lists carry 347 tickets, or 694 names with deputies. Akwa Ibom has the largest field, 20 tickets, and Katsina the smallest, 11. Twenty-one parties appear. Only the APC, the ADC and the Action Democratic Party (ADP) field a ticket in every one of the 23 states. The Allied Peoples Movement (APM) fields 22, the Action Peoples Party (APP) 21, the PDP and the Labour Party 20 each, and the NDC and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) 19 each. INEC's "2027 General Elections Update" page lists 23 governorship documents. It has none for Cross River, Delta, Nasarawa, Niger or Rivers, the other five of the 28 states whose governorship elections fall in February. When Vero Record requested a file under the same naming pattern for each of those five states on the evening of 10 October, the server returned "not found".

Women head 20 of the 347 governorship tickets, 5.76 per cent. None of them stands for the APC, the PDP, the ADC, the Labour Party or the NNPP; the APP and the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) have five each. Eleven of the 23 states have no woman governorship candidate, while Akwa Ibom has five. Women are 81 of the 347 deputies, 23.34 per cent, so 101 of the 694 names, 14.55 per cent. Governorship candidates are aged 35 to 76, with a median of 52, and 34 are under 40.

The State House of Assembly list has 9,802 candidates in 991 constituencies across 35 states, on 693 pages. Borno does not appear in it: a search of every page finds the word only in other contexts, never as a state entry. All 22 registered parties appear. The APC and the ADC each have a candidate in all 991 constituencies, followed by the NDC with 964, the SDP with 893 and the PDP with 870. Kano has the most candidates, 449, and Cross River the fewest, 145. Women are 1,010 of the 9,802, 10.30 per cent, from 3 of 234 in Jigawa and 3 of 213 in Yobe to 57 of 264 in Kwara. The youngest candidates are 25; 95 candidates are that age.

Set beside the National Assembly lists that Vero Record counted on 3 October, the state field is about twice as large. Those lists carried 4,863 candidates, 469 of them women, 9.64 per cent. The share of women among Assembly candidates, 10.30 per cent, is close to that figure; among governorship candidates, 5.76 per cent, it is lower. The final lists also differ from the totals INEC's chairman, Joash Amupitan, gave at a press conference on Tuesday, 6 October, as reported by Tribune: 936 governorship and deputy governorship candidates and 9,692 Assembly candidates submitted by parties. The 23 posted governorship lists account for 694 of the 936. The Assembly list, even without Borno, has 9,802, which is 110 more than 9,692. The documents do not explain that difference, and Vero Record has not seen INEC's own text of the chairman's figures.

The Assembly list also bears on a dispute the commission has already answered once. The NDC's national chairman, Moses Cleopas Zuwoghe, alleged in late August that INEC had replaced the party's nominees for State House of Assembly seats with unauthorised names, Sahara Reporters reported on 30 August. On 1 September INEC issued a signed release calling the allegations about "certain State House of Assembly constituencies in Anambra and Benue States" unfounded. It said: "INEC has no legal authority to select, insert, or substitute a candidate for any party." It added that the commission had in its possession "Form EC9E where these candidates were listed and submitted to the Commission duly signed by the National Chairman and the National Secretary of the party."

On 2 September the NDC named ten Anambra candidates it disowned, in a statement by Theophilus Agada, its director of new media, reported by Ripples Nigeria. The final list gives the NDC a candidate in all 30 Anambra constituencies. Six of the ten names appear as NDC candidates in the constituency the party gave, either as the party spelt them or in a fuller form: Nwankwo Chiemerie in Orumba North, Maduagwu Eric K. in Anaocha I, Isintume Charles in Njikoka I, Nwachukwu Nonso in Nnewi South I, Okeke Ifeanyi Akunne in Nnewi South II and Nnonyelu Samson Ekenechukwu in Ayamelum. In Idemili North the list has "IGBOEBISI OBINNA" where the party wrote "Ngoebisi Obinna". The two Onitsha South names are on the list with the constituencies reversed: "AKPOTUE CHIBUIKE BARTHOLOMEW" for Onitsha South I and "UMENNAAJIEGO JUDE I." for Onitsha South II, where the party's statement had them the other way round.

The tenth is different. For Dunukofia the NDC disowned "Azotani Francis". The final list's NDC entry there, number 87, is "BASIL OBIDI OKECHUKWU", aged 43, and the name Azotani appears nowhere in the 9,802 rows. So nine of the ten surnames the party disowned are printed as its candidates on the final list, and one is not. The documents cannot settle the dispute itself. INEC says it holds Forms EC9E signed by the NDC's chairman and secretary; the NDC says it never submitted forms for these people. Neither side has published the forms. For Benue, the reports Vero Record found give no names, so there is nothing to test; the final list has NDC candidates in 34 of Benue's 37 constituencies, with none in Gboko III, Makurdi South or Vandeikya II.

On timing, the record supports INEC. Section 32(1) of the Electoral Act 2026 requires the commission to publish "a statement of the full names and addresses of all candidates standing nominated" at least 60 days before the election, at its relevant offices and on its website. For polls on 6 February 2027, INEC's calendar date, the last day is 8 December 2026. The lists were published on 10 October, 119 days before the election and 59 days before the deadline, the date the chairman had announced, according to Tribune. The file data of the Gombe list record its creation at 15:23 UTC that day. The posted lists give names, party, age, gender, disability and qualifications, but no addresses; Vero Record did not inspect the copies displayed at INEC offices.

The lists can still change. Section 31 lets a candidate withdraw through his party, which must notify INEC not later than 90 days before the election, which for 6 February is 8 November 2026. Two entries are marked "COURT ORDER": the ADC governorship ticket in Ogun and an APGA Assembly candidate in Oyi, Anambra. There are keying errors that do not alter the counts. The Action Alliance's deputy governorship candidate in Kaduna is given as 147 years old. Three Assembly candidates are given as 955, 957 and 156, and one has no age at all. The serial numbers run without a gap in every state and in every list, which is how the totals were checked.

What the lists establish is the field INEC published on 10 October. They do not establish why no PDP ticket appears for Gombe, Kebbi or Ogun, whether the PDP submitted one for Gombe, or whether a court will order a name added. Nor do they show whether lists for the five missing governorship states and for Borno's Assembly seats will follow, or who uploaded the disputed Anambra names. Nothing in them suggests wrongdoing by any candidate, party or official. Vero Record did not put questions to INEC, the PDP, the NDC or Mr Pantami for this report.

What this rests on

Downloaded from inecnigeria.org on 10 October 2026 and read: the 23 governorship final lists (Abia to Zamfara, 2 to 4 pages each, every page signed by Rose Oriaran-Anthony, Secretary, INEC; PDF creation times 13:55 to 17:37 UTC on 10 October) and the 2027 State House of Assembly final list (693 pages; created 6 October 19:49 UTC, modified 10 October 17:59 UTC). Requests for Cross River, Delta, Nasarawa, Niger and Rivers under the same file pattern returned HTTP 404. Every row extracted with PyMuPDF using table cell boundaries, with the green INEC watermark text removed; serial numbers checked to run 1 to n without a gap in each state. Governorship tickets by state: Abia 15 + Adamawa 18 + Akwa Ibom 20 + Bauchi 15 + Benue 12 + Borno 13 + Ebonyi 12 + Enugu 16 + Gombe 16 + Jigawa 13 + Kaduna 16 + Kano 17 + Katsina 11 + Kebbi 14 + Kwara 12 + Lagos 17 + Ogun 13 + Oyo 16 + Plateau 17 + Sokoto 17 + Taraba 19 + Yobe 13 + Zamfara 15 = 347; 347 x 2 = 694 names. By party: ADC 23 + ADP 23 + APC 23 + APM 22 + APP 21 + LP 20 + PDP 20 + NDC 19 + SDP 19 + NRM 18 + ZLP 18 + NDP 17 + APGA 15 + AAC 14 + NNPP 14 + A 12 + PRP 12 + YPP 11 + AA 10 + DLA 10 + BP 6 = 347. Gombe: 16 entries on pp.1 to 3 (4 + 6 + 6); parties present 16 + absent (AA, APGA, BP, PDP, YPP) 5 = 21. Women governorship candidates 20 / 347 = 5.76 per cent (by state 1+2+5+1+1+3+1+1+1+2+1+1 = 20 in 12 states; 23 - 12 = 11 states with none); deputies 81 / 347 = 23.34 per cent; 20 + 81 = 101 / 694 = 14.55 per cent. Governorship ages 35 to 76, median 52, 34 under 40. Assembly: 9,802 rows in 35 states (Borno absent; text search of all 693 pages for BORNO returns no page), 991 distinct constituencies; APC 991, ADC 991, NDC 964, SDP 893, PDP 870 (all 22 parties sum to 9,802); women 1,010 / 9,802 = 10.30 per cent; Jigawa 3/234, Yobe 3/213, Kwara 57/264; Kano 449, Cross River 145; 95 candidates aged 25. Gombe Assembly: PDP 24 of 24 constituencies. National Assembly (Vero Record, 3 October): 1,303 + 3,560 = 4,863; 469 / 4,863 = 9.64 per cent; 9,802 / 4,863 = 2.02. Chairman's reported figures (Tribune, 7 October): 936 - 694 = 242; 9,802 - 9,692 = 110. Anambra NDC: 30 entries for 30 constituencies; disowned ten checked against the list: 6 same constituency (same or fuller name) + 1 spelling variant (Idemili North) + 2 surnames with constituencies reversed (Onitsha South I and II, p.80, entries 211 and 217) + 1 different name (Dunukofia, p.71, entry 87) = 10; surnames present 6 + 1 + 2 = 9. Benue NDC: 34 of 37 constituencies. Dates: 6 February 2027 minus 60 days = 8 December 2026 (23 days to 31 December + 31 in January + 6 in February = 60); minus 90 days = 8 November 2026 (22 + 31 + 31 + 6 = 90). 10 October 2026 to 6 February 2027 = 21 + 30 + 31 + 31 + 6 = 119 days; 10 October to 8 December = 21 + 30 + 8 = 59 days. 10 October 2026 was a Saturday, 6 October a Tuesday, 2 September a Wednesday. Electoral Act 2026 ss.31 and 32(1), p.21. INEC release of 1 September 2026 (signed by Mohammed Kudu Haruna) read from INEC's website; identical byte for byte to the copy saved on 6 October.

What this does not establish

Why the Gombe list has no PDP ticket, whether the PDP submitted Mr Pantami's name for the final list, and whether any court order is pending that would add it: the lists are silent and Vero Record did not contact INEC, the PDP or Mr Pantami. The earlier particulars of 29 August, which reportedly carried his name, were not seen; that account rests on Leadership. Why five governorship lists (Cross River, Delta, Nasarawa, Niger, Rivers) and Borno's Assembly entries were not on INEC's site on the evening of 10 October, and whether they will be posted. Why the Assembly total exceeds by 110 the 9,692 reported from the chairman's 6 October briefing; INEC's own text of those figures was not found. Who entered the disputed NDC names on INEC's portal, and whether the Forms EC9E INEC says it holds were signed by the NDC's officers: neither the forms nor any audit trail is public; the NDC's list of ten rests on Ripples Nigeria's report of its statement. Whether the list copies at INEC offices carry the addresses section 32(1) mentions. Counts of distinct constituencies rely on the spelling of constituency names in the list.