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Prominent Edo leaders, party stakeholders and grassroots coordinators have cautioned the leadership of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) against what they described as widespread candidate substitution and alleged manipulation of the party’s 2027 primary election outcomes, warning that the controversy could jeopardise the party’s electoral fortunes in Edo State and across Nigeria.
The warning followed an emergency stakeholders’ meeting in Abuja attended by influential Edo leaders from across the country, alongside representatives of the amalgamated Obedient-Kwankwaso and NDC grassroots support coordinators.
The gathering reviewed the outcome of the NDC primaries conducted nationwide on May 28 and 29, 2026, and expressed concern over what participants termed “unresolved scandals currently leading to nationwide loss of confidence in the NDC by Nigerians.”
Addressing the meeting, elder statesman and veteran labour leader, Pa Victor Aguebor, alleged that documents and petitions reviewed by the stakeholders implicated some party officials in Edo State.
“In Edo State alone, documents of hundreds of petitioners and nearly a dozen court litigations we have assessed severely indict some officials of the party, especially the party’s South-South zonal chairman and Edo State chairman of NDC, who headed the committee charged with the conduct of the party’s primaries in Edo State,” Aguebor said.
According to him, the documents allegedly revealed that genuine winners of the primaries were displaced in favour of aspirants who either joined the party shortly before the primaries or allegedly did not participate in the exercise.
The stakeholders claimed that some of those eventually submitted as candidates had previously lost primary elections in other political parties before defecting to the NDC.
Aguebor further alleged that some individuals who emerged as candidates “did not participate at all in the NDC primaries of Edo State, but bribed their way heavily to emerge as the winners of those primaries.”
Presenting what he described as video evidence during the meeting, Aguebor named the NDC South-South Zonal Chairman, Barr. Frederick Enderokeme Owotorufa, and the Edo State Chairman, Mr. David Olukoga, as principal actors in the alleged irregularities.
“The NDC South-South zonal chairman, Barr. Frederick Enderokeme Owotorufa, and Edo State chairman of the party, Mr. David Olukoga, are prime actors in this unfortunate and shameful misadventure in modern-day Edo political history,” he stated.
He further claimed that although the zonal leadership directed that all primary election results be submitted to its committee for official announcement in Benin City, the authentic results were allegedly never made public.
“Upon receiving the actual results of winners, both the zonal chairman, Barr. Owotorufa, and state chairman, Olukoga, did not announce the winners of the primaries till date. Only for them to compile their own names of individuals and outsiders of the party who sufficiently met their unpatriotic mercantile appetites, and shortlisted the supplanters to INEC as the party’s candidates for the 2027 elections, thus replacing the winners with losers.”
He warned that such actions could have severe political consequences.
“Edo State shall be the last frontier in Nigeria to swallow this evil. Because this is an evil which comprehensively endangers the victory of the NDC in Edo State and entire Nigeria in the 2027 elections.”
Aguebor cited the Oredo Federal Constituency primary as one example where he alleged that the authentic winner was replaced by a former APC aspirant who neither won his previous party’s primary nor participated in the NDC primary.
Despite their criticisms, the stakeholders commended several senior party figures whom they described as remaining above the controversy. They specifically praised Senator Rolland Owie, Bishop Isaac Idahosa, local government chairmen within Oredo Federal Constituency and ward executives, saying they had “consistently kept their hands clean” from the alleged crisis.
The meeting also endorsed a petition earlier submitted by the Obi-Kwankwaso Movement Global (OKMG), signed by its Global Coordinator, Rev. Pius Ndubueze Ukachukwu, which similarly challenged the conduct of the NDC primaries nationwide.
According to the Edo stakeholders, the South-East petition correctly warned that the injustices allegedly recorded during the primaries “threaten to become irreversible.”
Speaking on behalf of the Edo leadership, the Edo South Coordinator of the NDC and Chairman of Chairmen in the state, Mr. Jatto Erumusele, aligned the state’s position with that of the South-East stakeholders.
“We of Edo State and the South-South in general agree with our South-East counterparts that public confidence in the NDC has been shattered. Loyal members feel betrayed and are threatening defection. Young activists—the party’s future—are walking away in disgust. Most critically, the collapse of grassroots mobilization directly undermines every effort and progress made toward the 2027 general elections.”
The stakeholders demanded the immediate release of authentic congress and primary election results, a forensic audit of all disputed party tickets and disciplinary measures against officials allegedly involved in the controversy.
Erumusele also urged the party leadership to urgently restore confidence by recognising what he described as authentic candidates.
“Urgent party support to authentic, verified and short-changed candidates is needed to reactivate grassroots mobilization,” he said, adding that enthusiasm among supporters had significantly declined since the primaries.
He warned that internal injustice could undermine the party’s credibility before Nigerians.
“A party which cannot manage its own internal democracy cannot credibly ask Nigerians for national mandate.”
Highlighting Edo State’s historical significance in Nigeria’s democratic evolution, Erumusele cautioned against imposing unpopular candidates.
“Edo State is special in Nigeria’s national politics dating back to pre-Independence demand for our country’s liberation from colonial rule.”
He continued:
“It is not by accident that outside Lagos State, Edo was the hottest theatre in the MKO Abiola nationwide June 12, 1993 election protests, and twenty years later the epicentre of the 2023 Obedient ballot tsunami. Edo State, take it or leave it, is the cradle of modern Nigeria’s democracy.”
He concluded with a direct warning to the party leadership:
“Testing the will of our people by imposing unwanted and unpopular candidates who cannot win elections but help corrupt party officials to scoop millions of naira into their pockets, against the preferred candidates of Nigerians will be fatal to the NDC nationwide in 2027. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.”
The allegations contained in the stakeholders’ resolutions had not been independently verified, and the party officials named in the meeting had not publicly responded to the claims at the time of filing this report.
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