INEC's Nasarawa list names ex-IGP Adamu as the SDP's candidate. He left the APC on 25 May, 15 days after INEC's deadline for party registers

On 13 October INEC explained why some parties and candidates were missing from its final governorship lists for 2027. The statement, signed by National Commissioner Mohammed Kudu Haruna, said the Supreme Court's judgment of 24 September in INEC v. Zenith Labour Party had "affirmed the mandatory requirement for political parties to submit their membership registers", that eligibility to sponsor candidates "was tied to compliance with the law", and that "compliance with the Electoral Act is not optional". Vero Record set that statement against one row of INEC's own Nasarawa list and against section 77 of the Electoral Act 2026.

Row 11 of INEC's final list for the Nasarawa governorship election names Mohammed Abubakar Adamu, a former Inspector-General of Police, as the Social Democratic Party's candidate, with Ada'a Lawrence Dari as his deputy. The list gives Adamu's age as 65. Its Remarks column is blank. The three-page PDF is signed for INEC's Secretary, Rose Oriaran-Anthony, and records its creation on 10 October 2026 at 18:33 UTC. It carries 13 tickets.

Section 77(4) of the Act requires each party to make its membership register available to INEC "not later than 21 days before the date fixed for the party primaries, congresses or conventions". Section 77(5) says "only members whose names are contained in the register shall be eligible to vote and be voted for" at those primaries, congresses and conventions. Section 77(6) bars a party from using "any other register" than the one it gave INEC. Section 77(7) says a party that misses the time "shall not be eligible to field a candidate for that election".

INEC's signed timetable for the 2027 election, dated 26 February 2026, set 1 to 21 April for parties to submit their registers (item 2) and 23 April to 30 May for primaries (item 3). On 27 March, according to Arise News, INEC moved the register deadline to 10 May. On 15 May Haruna said that "all registered political parties complied with the requirement within the extended timeframe", finishing on 8 May, and that the registers would go through "the necessary verification processes".

Adamu was not an SDP member in that window. He sought the governorship ticket of the All Progressives Congress, lost its Nasarawa primary to Aliyu Ahmed Wadada, who is the APC's candidate on row 3 of the same INEC list, and resigned from the APC by a letter delivered to his ward executives in Makama, Lafia, on Monday 25 May, News Central reported the next day. That was 17 days after INEC says the SDP and every other party had filed, and 15 days after the extended deadline closed.

The SDP did not choose him in its spring primaries. Its first Nasarawa candidate, Musa Angba, withdrew. On 24 August the party's National Chairman, Sadiq Gombe, wrote to INEC that it would hold fresh governorship primaries in Nasarawa and Gombe, as reported by Legit. The Voice of Nigeria reported on 6 September that Adamu, the only aspirant, had won a special delegates' congress in Lafia with 28,637 votes, declared by the electoral committee chairman, Joseph Achile.

Read together, the documents raise a question INEC has not answered in public. If the only SDP register INEC holds is the one filed by 8 May, Adamu's name could not have been on it while he was still contesting the APC's primary, and section 77(5) would bar him from being voted for at the September congress. INEC nonetheless published him, while its 13 October statement cites the same section to explain other omissions.

The record also leaves room for INEC. Section 77(4) ties the 21 days to "primaries, congresses or conventions", not to one national date, so a party holding a replacement congress in late summer could in principle lodge an updated register 21 days before it. Neither INEC's timetable nor its 15 May statement mentions such a second filing, and Vero Record has found no public record that the SDP made one. A withdrawal and replacement under section 33 was open at the time: INEC's timetable closed it for governorship candidates on 19 September, after the congress.

Reports of the Supreme Court judgment also say the register penalty falls on parties rather than on candidates personally. Vero Record has not obtained the judgment. Even on that reading, section 77(5) and (6) set out who may be voted for and which register may be used, and those words are in the Act.

INEC applied the rule elsewhere. The PDP's Gombe ticket, won at a rerun by Isa Ali Pantami after he left the APC, is absent from INEC's Gombe list. INEC's lists give no reason for any omission, and its statement names no party, state or candidate, so the record does not show which test it applied in Nasarawa or in Gombe.

The documents do not establish that Adamu or the SDP broke the law, and no court has said so. They establish that INEC's own list includes a candidate who, on the dates INEC and the press have published, joined his party after INEC says the party's register was filed.

We invite a response from INEC, through Mohammed Kudu Haruna, on whether the SDP filed an updated Nasarawa register before its September congress and on what date; from the SDP, through Sadiq Gombe, on the same question; and from Mohammed Abubakar Adamu on when he was registered as an SDP member. We will publish any reply in full.

What this rests on

Grade A core, both retrieved and read: (1) INEC, Governorship Election 2027, Nasarawa Final List of Candidates, 3 pages, signed for Rose Oriaran-Anthony, PDF creation date 2026-10-10 18:33:32 UTC; 13 tickets counted (5 on p.1, 6 on p.2, 2 on p.3: 5+6+2=13); row 11 SDP, Mohammed Abubakar Adamu, age 65, deputy Ada'a Lawrence Dari, Remarks blank; row 3 APC, Aliyu Ahmed Wadada. (2) Electoral Act 2026 as published by INEC, s.77(4)-(7), p.34. (3) INEC Revised Timetable, 26 February 2026, items 2 (registers 1-21 April 2026) and 3 (primaries 23 April-30 May 2026), as posted by INEC on X. Arithmetic: 10 May to 25 May 2026 = 15 days; 8 May to 25 May = 17 days; 21 April to 10 May = 19 days of extension. Under s.77(4), a register for a congress on or about 5 September (VON report of 6 September) would have had to reach INEC by about 15 August (5 September minus 21 days); 24 August letter to INEC to 19 September replacement deadline = 26 days. Grade B: INEC 13 October statement as reported by Blueprint (14 October); 27 March extension and 15 May compliance statement as reported by Arise News; Adamu's resignation (News Central, 26 May); the SDP's 24 August letter (Legit); the special congress result (Voice of Nigeria, 6 September); the 19 September replacement deadline (INEC timetable item 7, read in an earlier Vero Record report); the Supreme Court holding (press reports).

What this does not establish

Whether the SDP lodged an updated Nasarawa register with INEC before its September congress, and whether Adamu's name is on any SDP register INEC holds; Vero Record has not seen the registers. The exact date of the Lafia congress and of Adamu's SDP registration. What test INEC applied in Nasarawa; its list and its 13 October statement give no reasons. The Supreme Court judgment in INEC v. Zenith Labour Party was not obtained. INEC's 13 October, 27 March and 15 May statements were read as reported, not in INEC's own copies. Nothing here establishes any offence by Adamu, the SDP or INEC.