A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Oba Maduabuchi, has faulted the Independent National Electoral Commission over the omission of several candidates from its final list for the 2027 general elections, arguing that the commission has no constitutional or statutory power to disqualify candidates.
Maduabuchi said INEC could not determine who was qualified to contest an election, insisting that its powers were limited to those expressly granted by the 1999 Constitution and the Electoral Act. 
His position followed the release of INEC’s final list of candidates on Friday, which excluded several aspirants nominated by political parties for various elective positions, triggering concerns and protests among affected parties.
Speaking on Arise TV, the senior lawyer said the powers of statutory bodies such as INEC must be determined by their enabling laws.
According to him, both the Constitution and the Electoral Act, which provide the legal framework for INEC’s operations, contain no provision empowering the commission to disqualify a candidate from contesting an election.
“The police, Army and INEC are statutory creations. They are created by law. That law defines the ambit of the powers exercisable by those bodies,” he said.
“So, to know what a particular body has the capacity to do, you go back to its establishing statute. For INEC, these are the Electoral Act and the Nigerian Constitution.
“These are the two documents you must look at. There is no provision in the 1999 Nigerian Constitution authorising INEC to disqualify anybody. There is none.
“There is also no provision in the Electoral Act that gives INEC the power to decide whether somebody is qualified to contest an election. There is no such provision.”
Maduabuchi consequently questioned the legal basis for INEC’s decision to exclude candidates from its final list, describing the commission’s position as misguided.
“So, INEC is simply… how do I describe it? I have to be careful with the words I use. But I think they are ill-advised, to say the least,” he added.
The controversy comes as political parties and affected candidates seek clarification over omissions from INEC’s final list, with the development threatening to generate further legal and political disputes ahead of the 2027 elections.
