2027 Politics Watch: Atiku fights to stay on ballot, Tinubu backers’ claim 500-plus vehicles

Rauf Aregbesola’s separate appeal against the judgement invalidating the leadership of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) became public on Sunday, adding another legal challenge to a ruling that also voided Atiku Abubakar’s presidential nomination.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), meanwhile, said it would obtain the certified copy and examine the judgement before deciding how to respond.

The dispute could affect more than Atiku’s place on the ballot. INEC’s procedures require national party chairmen to receive access codes for submitting polling agents, with the portal scheduled to close on 10 December.

Elsewhere, the Delta State Government demanded an investigation into Saturday’s deadly opposition procession in Asaba, while a group supporting President Bola Tinubu claimed to have distributed more than 500 campaign vehicles.

Sunday also brought a fresh argument over the Ibom Deep Sea Port, with the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) questioning whether the president’s latest approval represented progress beyond an earlier federal decision.

The developments put party authority, campaign security, political financing and government promises at the centre of another day of electioneering.

ADC’s legal battle reaches polling-agent preparations

Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja ruled on 5 November that the ADC leadership headed by former Senate President David Mark had been unlawfully constituted.

The court invalidated decisions arising from the party’s disputed 99th National Executive Committee meeting, including the process that produced Atiku as its presidential candidate.

The suit, identified in court reporting as FHC/ABJ/CS/1819/2025, was brought by Nafiu Bala Gombe, a former ADC deputy national chairman who challenged the leadership succession following Ralph Nwosu’s departure.

The ADC has appealed the ruling and applied for a stay of execution.

On Sunday, details emerged of a separate appeal filed by Mr Aregbesola, the party’s national secretary, through his lawyer, Mohammed Sheriff, a senior advocate of Nigeria.

Mr Aregbesola challenged the trial court’s jurisdiction and interpretation of the party’s constitution. His lawyers argued that the court failed to distinguish between an election to fill a leadership vacancy and a temporary appointment permitted under the ADC constitution.

The notice of appeal was filed on Friday, 6 November, while a separate application seeking to suspend enforcement of specified orders was filed the following day.

Neither an appeal nor an application for a stay automatically establishes that the judgment has been suspended.

The News Agency of Nigeria reported the separate appeal, while PREMIUM TIMES previously reported the ADC’s challenge.

INEC National Commissioner Mohammed Haruna told Sunday PUNCH that the commission would study the judgement and discuss its implications at its next meeting.

One administrative question concerns the party’s polling agents.

INEC’s electronic platform states that access codes are issued to national party chairmen, who distribute them to authorised officials responsible for uploading agents’ details.

The portal gives 10 December, at 11.59 p.m. West Africa Time, as the submission deadline for the 16 January presidential election.

The disputed ADC leadership could therefore raise questions about which officials INEC recognises for that process. There is, however, no established evidence that the commission has denied the party access or rejected its polling-agent submissions.

The controversy has a parallel in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

On 4 November, the Court of Appeal upheld a decision refusing to compel INEC to recognise the interim leadership associated with Kabiru Turaki.

INEC’s party directory identifies Abdulrahman Mohammed, who leads the rival faction supported by Federal Capital Territory Minister Nyesom Wike, as national chairman.

At a Sunday briefing, Mr Turaki accused the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of benefiting from judicial decisions against opposition factions.

He also criticised Mr Wike’s Rainbow Coalition, whose members support Mr Tinubu despite belonging to different political parties.

The allegations of political interference remain unproven. The APC has denied responsibility for the ADC’s internal leadership dispute.

PREMIUM TIMES reported Mr Turaki’s allegations.

INEC lists Sandy Onor as the PDP presidential candidate, illustrating the difference between a party’s formal nomination and the presidential preferences of influential politicians within its ranks.

Delta demands inquiry into fatal opposition procession

The Delta State Government on Sunday called for an investigation into violence that left one person dead and five others injured during an opposition procession in Asaba the previous day.

The event, organised by the Obidient/OK Movement, was intended to mobilise support for NDC presidential candidate Peter Obi and his running mate, Rabiu Kwankwaso.

The incident occurred along Nnebisi Road.

Mr Obi had condemned the violence on Saturday evening and demanded that those responsible be identified and prosecuted.

Sunday’s development was the state government’s intervention and the emergence of competing accounts of the security arrangements.

Delta’s Commissioner for Works, Rural Roads and Public Information, Charles Aniagwu, said organisers should have followed police advice to use a designated venue.

Police said they had warned of possible violence and subsequently responded to a distress call, taking injured persons to hospital.

The movement’s state coordinator, Favour Emerure, disputed the suggestion that organisers disregarded police instructions.

He said the command had been notified and that the procession avoided Inter-Bua Junction as directed. He also questioned the absence of officers when the violence began.

These accounts leave unresolved whether adequate security arrangements were agreed, what happened before the confrontation and who was responsible for the attack.

The police-reported casualty figures do not establish the identity or political affiliation of the perpetrators.

The Guardian reported the state government’s response, while PREMIUM TIMES covered the fatal incident in Saturday’s roundup.

The incident adds to concerns about campaign security as political activities expand ahead of the January presidential election.

Tinubu’s supporters expand campaign network across North-West

The PBAT Door-to-Door Movement, associated with Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo, said on Sunday that it had distributed more than 500 vehicles for grassroots mobilisation in approximately 20 states.

Its national coordinator, Sunday Asuku, announced a further tour of Enugu, Cross River, Bayelsa, Zamfara, Jigawa, Anambra, Kebbi and Abia between 9 and 14 November.

The claimed fleet has not been independently verified.

PREMIUM TIMES previously documented the presentation of 26 vehicles each in Ondo and Gombe states.

The movement has not published a complete inventory showing the acquisition costs, ownership, funding sources or recipients of the wider fleet.

Those records matter for determining whether particular contributions or expenditures fall within the disclosure requirements governing political parties and campaigns.

Section 93 of the Electoral Act 2026 requires political parties to submit audited election-expense returns within six months after an election. The returns must include expenditure incurred by or on behalf of the party and the commercial value of relevant goods and services received.

Whether the claimed vehicles form part of reportable APC expenditure depends on their financing, use and relationship with the party’s campaign.

The announcement coincided with fresh APC organisational activity in the North-West.

In Kebbi, Governor Nasir Idris inaugurated the party’s state campaign council on Sunday, days after Atiku campaigned in Birnin Kebbi.

The state is politically significant because Atiku defeated Mr Tinubu there in the 2023 presidential election, receiving 285,175 votes against 248,088.

In neighbouring Jigawa, Governor Umar Namadi said the APC could deliver two million votes for Mr Tinubu in 2027.

That ambition is more than twice the 954,805 votes cast in Jigawa during the 2023 presidential election, when Mr Tinubu won with 421,390 votes.

The comparison measures the scale of the governor’s target against historical turnout; it does not establish how many people will vote in 2027.

Mr Kwankwaso, campaigning separately in Dutse for the NDC, also revisited his failure to reach an alliance with Mr Obi before the 2023 election.

The two politicians, who contested separately that year, now share the NDC presidential ticket.

Their alliance illustrates one form of opposition cooperation, although Mr Atiku continues to pursue the presidency under the ADC.

Ibom port dispute raises questions over what Tinubu approved

The NDC challenged President Tinubu’s latest announcement concerning the Ibom Deep Sea Port, arguing that the project had already received federal approval under former President Muhammadu Buhari.

At an APC rally in Uyo on Friday, Mr Tinubu approved a request presented by Akwa Ibom Governor Umo Eno.

On Sunday, NDC spokesperson Osa Director questioned what the new approval added to decisions previously taken by the federal government.

The Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission’s 2020 annual report records Federal Executive Council approval of the project’s full business case on 16 December 2020.

But that approval was not equivalent to confirmation that the project had been fully financed or constructed.

The regulator identified the finalisation of contracts and financing as subsequent steps.

At the time, Akwa Ibom officials estimated the first phase would cost approximately $2 billion, with the state expected to provide 40 per cent and a preferred private bidder the remainder.

Mr Eno has described the latest presidential decision as approval of financing arrangements.

That explanation raises questions the earlier approval alone cannot answer: how much financing has now been committed, on what terms, by which institutions and against what construction timetable?

The NDC’s accusation that the president recycled an earlier promise remains a political claim. Establishing whether the new decision is substantive requires the underlying financing and project documents.

The PUNCH reported the NDC’s challenge, while Channels Television reported Mr Eno’s explanation.

The APC also promoted railway construction as evidence of its infrastructure record.

Its presidential campaign council announced 3 December as the proposed inauguration date for the 190-kilometre Jaji–Kano section of the Kaduna–Kano railway and the 250-kilometre Dawanu–Kano–Kazaure–Daura–Katsina section of the Kano–Maradi project.

The campaign council cited estimated completion levels of 90 per cent for Kaduna–Kano and 70 per cent for Kano–Maradi.

The transport ministry had previously identified December as a commissioning target.

An inauguration announcement does not establish that regular passenger operations will begin on that date. Operational readiness and the timetable for commercial services require confirmation from the responsible transport authorities.

PREMIUM TIMES reported the railway announcement.

Lagos candidates clash over transport and healthcare financing

In Lagos, Sunday’s governorship debate brought competing approaches to public infrastructure and healthcare into sharper focus.

ADC candidate Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour proposed greater reliance on private infrastructure financing for rail expansion, with investors repaid over an extended period.

APC candidate and Deputy Governor Obafemi Hamzat favoured substantial government investment, arguing that recovering construction costs directly through fares could make rail transport unaffordable.

The disagreement went beyond the number of projects each candidate promised. It concerned who should bear the initial financial burden and how those costs would ultimately reach commuters or taxpayers.

Mr Hamzat also proposed expanding the bus fleet to 4,000 and introducing 77 electric ferries.

NDC candidate Funso Doherty called for modern buses to replace ageing commercial vehicles, while PDP candidate Deji Doherty identified heavy goods traffic, poor roads and delays in major infrastructure projects as contributors to congestion.

Healthcare produced another set of measurable commitments.

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Mr Rhodes-Vivour proposed establishing emergency response centres in each of Lagos’s 245 wards, with two ambulances per centre, while Mr Hamzat promised to extend health insurance coverage to one in three residents.

Mr Funso Doherty advocated free maternal and child healthcare, including medicines and diagnostic tests. Mr Deji Doherty emphasised increasing the health workforce and supporting local medical production.

The proposals also differed in their budget implications.

Mr Rhodes-Vivour advocated raising the health sector’s share of state expenditure towards 15 per cent. Mr Funso Doherty proposed increasing the combined allocation to health and education to 28 per cent during his first term.

Earlier in the year, Lagos Health Commissioner Akin Abayomi said the state allocated approximately eight per cent of its budget to health and faced an estimated N100 billion gap between projected needs and available funding.

Those figures provide a starting point for assessing the candidates’ proposals, but none of the promises can be judged on headline percentages alone.

Their feasibility will depend on revenue assumptions, existing spending commitments, implementation costs and the services each proposal is intended to deliver.