Fresh Crisis Looms in Abia NDC as Primary Committee Chair Bypasses National Leadership to Submit Candidates List Directly to INEC

A deep structural crisis is threatening to tear the newly reconfigured Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) apart following an unprecedented administrative breach where the chairman of the Abia State Primary Election Committee, Chief Asukewe Ikoawaji, bypassed the party’s national executive council to submit the official list of nominated candidates directly to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The high-stakes internal revolt involves the authenticated tickets for the upcoming governorship, National Assembly, and State House of Assembly races across Abia State. Legal observers and seasoned party stakeholders contend that the unilateral submission fundamentally violates the statutory provisions of the Electoral Act, which strictly mandates that only the unified national chairman and national secretary of a political party possess the explicit legal authority to communicate and transmit the names of nominated flagbearers to the country's central electoral umpire.

The internal power struggle materializes at an incredibly sensitive moment for the NDC, which has recently transformed into a primary opposition vessel following a massive consolidation that integrated former Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi, his running mate Rabiu Kwankwaso, and their sweeping grassroots loyalist networks into its formal national apparatus. According to formal documents intercepted by regional correspondents, Ikoawaji drafted an official dispatch dated May 30, 2026, titled "The Outcome of the NDC Primary Election in Abia State," directing it straight to the INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, through the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Umuahia. While Ikoawaji vigorously defended his actions by claiming the collation process at the party's Nsukka Street headquarters was fully witnessed by security agencies and an INEC monitoring officer, the national secretariat in Abuja is moving rapidly to suppress the insubordination, warning that allowing localized state panels to assume sovereign communication links with INEC risks inviting absolute procedural chaos and extensive pre-election litigation that could entirely disqualify the party from the general election ballot.