THE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) have commenced the upload of the names of their governorship and state Houses of Assembly candidates for the 2027 general elections.
News Point Nigeria reports that the PDP National Organising Secretary, Umar Bature, confirmed that the opposition party began the upload process on Saturday, while a senior APC official disclosed that the ruling party had also commenced the exercise in line with the Independent National Electoral Commission’s timetable.
The APC source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to comment publicly, stated that only governorship and state Houses of Assembly candidates whose nominations had been cleared by the primary election appeal panel and approved by the National Working Committee (NWC) would be uploaded to the commission’s portal.
Earlier, in line with INEC’s timetable, political parties submitted the nomination lists of their presidential and National Assembly candidates between June 27 and July 11, 2026.
The process also involved the submission of Forms EC9 and EC9A to EC9E, as stipulated under Section 29(1) of the Electoral Act, 2026.
INEC had fixed the submission of nomination forms for governorship and state Houses of Assembly candidates to run from 9:00 a.m. on July 18 to 6:00 p.m. on August 8, 2026.
According to the electoral timetable, the personal particulars of presidential and National Assembly candidates will be published on August 8, while those of governorship and state Houses of Assembly candidates will be displayed on August 29.
The commission also set August 22 as the deadline for the withdrawal or substitution of presidential and National Assembly candidates, while governorship and state House of Assembly candidates have until September 19 to withdraw or be substituted.
Speaking on the exercise, Bature disclosed that the PDP commenced the upload of candidates’ details on Saturday and expressed confidence that the process would be concluded before the deadline.
He said, “The Peoples Democratic Party commenced the upload of its governorship and state Houses of Assembly candidates’ details to INEC’s nomination portal on Saturday.
“The exercise has been progressing smoothly without any technical issues, and we are confident that the upload process will be completed well ahead of the deadline.”
On its part, the APC confirmed that it had begun uploading the names of its candidates to the INEC portal, with priority given to the 16 incumbent governors seeking re-election.
The 16 governors expected to feature on the APC list include Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom, Hyacinth Alia of Benue, Uba Sani of Kaduna, Abba Yusuf of Kano, Dikko Radda of Katsina, Nasir Idris of Kebbi, Umaru Bago of Niger, Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau, Ahmed Aliyu of Sokoto, Agbu Kefas of Taraba and Dauda Lawal of Zamfara.
According to the source, the party’s governorship list will also include 12 first-time flagbearers, among them Obafemi Hamzat of Lagos, Solomon Adeola of Ogun, Kingsley Chinda of Rivers, Eric Opah of Abia, Mohammed Abubakar of Bauchi, Mustapha Gubio of Borno, Jamilu Gwamna of Gombe, Ahmed Wadada of Nasarawa and Baba Malam Wali of Yobe.
“I can confirm that the party commenced the upload process yesterday (Saturday), with priority given to the 16 governors seeking re-election,” the APC source said.
He added that the party had established a special committee headed by Jibrin Bancir, the Principal Private Secretary to the APC National Chairman, to coordinate the smooth transmission of documents and materials needed for the upload exercise.
“The party has also established a committee headed by Jibrin Bancir, the Principal Private Secretary to the APC National Chairman, to coordinate the smooth transmission of documents and materials required for upload to the INEC portal.
“The committee is responsible for receiving documents from state chairmen, verifying the details, ensuring all requirements are met, and forwarding them to the ICT department for upload.
“The arrangement is aimed at making the process seamless, efficient and timely,” he stated.
The APC official further disclosed that there could still be slight adjustments to the party’s initial list of candidates following the review of petitions by the primary election appeal committee.
“There could be slight changes to the initial list of candidates, as the primary election appeal committee had reviewed some petitions and submitted its recommendations to the National Working Committee.
“So, only candidates who passed the appeal committee’s review and received the approval of the NWC were uploaded to the INEC portal.
“We are confident that the exercise will be completed before the deadline,” he added.
The PDP, APC and other political parties are expected to upload a total of 28 governorship candidates and 993 state Houses of Assembly candidates across the country.
However, governorship elections will not be held in the eight states of Anambra, Bayelsa, Edo, Ekiti, Imo, Kogi, Ondo and Osun due to their off-cycle election schedules.
Earlier, political parties participating in the presidential and National Assembly elections had completed the submission and upload of their candidates’ details on the INEC portal.