The Independent National Electoral Commission has confirmed that Barrister Reuben Egwuaba, the National Legal Adviser of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, had already resigned from the Allied Peoples Movement and is now exclusively a member of the NDC, explaining that his simultaneous listing on both parties’ records on the INEC portal is likely the result of the APM’s failure to formally communicate his resignation to the commission and promising that “the needful will be done to update the portal.”
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The clarification, provided by INEC’s Deputy Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Wilfred Ifogah, came in response to an alarm raised by the Nigeria Democratic Rights Advocacy, a civil society coalition that had described the dual listing as “a serious legal contradiction with far-reaching implications” and a potential criminal offence under the amended Electoral Act 2026.
The INEC response defuses what could have become a significant legal challenge to the NDC at the very moment the party is receiving Peter Obi and Rabiu Kwankwaso as its most high-profile members, but it also raises questions about the accuracy and reliability of INEC’s party records portal and the processes by which changes in party officeholders are communicated and recorded.
The NDRA, in a statement signed by its General-Secretary Julius Aondowase on Sunday, said its attention had been drawn to “disturbing inconsistencies in official party records which list Barr. Reuben Egwuaba as National Legal Adviser in both the Allied Peoples Movement and the Nigeria Democratic Congress, with one of the listings expressly stated to be ‘by court order.'”
The group insisted the discrepancy was not minor.
“The infraction is not a clerical oversight it is a serious legal contradiction with far-reaching implications,” the NDRA stated.
The group cited Section 77 of the amended Electoral Act, which expressly prohibits belonging to more than one political party at the same time, with penalties of up to N10 million in fines and/or a prison term of up to two years for anyone found guilty of dual membership.
“The position of National Legal Adviser is not symbolic; it is a core office within a party’s National Executive Committee, which requires full and exclusive membership of that party. Therefore, occupying this role in both the APM and NDC simultaneously is not only politically improper it constitutes prima facie evidence of dual membership and a potential criminal offence under Nigerian law,” the NDRA stated.
The group demanded urgent clarification: “If these records are accurate, then this is a clear violation of the law. If they are not, then the public deserves an immediate correction and explanation as to how such conflicting information came to be officially documented.”
“Political parties must not become safe havens for legal contradictions. The rule of law must be upheld without exception,” the NDRA declared.
The group called on “relevant authorities, including electoral regulators, to investigate this matter without delay and take appropriate action in line with the law,” adding that “Nigeria’s democracy must be governed by rules not convenience.”
When contacted INEC’s Ifogah provided a straightforward explanation that attributed the discrepancy to administrative lag rather than legal violation.
“My inquiry revealed that he has already resigned from APM, which means he is of NDC,” Ifogah stated.
He explained why the dual listing persisted on the portal despite the resignation: “It’s likely APM has not formally communicated the commission. However, the needful will be done to update the portal.”
The explanation means the issue is procedural rather than substantive. Egwuaba resigned from the APM before assuming his position with the NDC, which means he was not simultaneously a member of two parties. However, because the APM did not formally notify INEC of his departure, the commission’s records were not updated, creating the appearance of dual membership even though no dual membership existed in fact.
INEC’s explanation reveals a procedural gap in how changes to party officeholders are recorded on the commission’s portal.
Under the current system, INEC appears to rely on parties themselves to communicate changes in their leadership and officeholders. If a party fails to notify INEC when an officer resigns, the commission’s portal continues to display outdated information, creating discrepancies that can be misinterpreted as legal violations.
In a political environment where opposition parties have accused the government of manufacturing crises through litigation, the existence of inaccurate records on INEC’s portal creates potential ammunition for frivolous legal challenges. A party’s opponent could point to a dual listing on the INEC portal as evidence of a legal violation, file a suit, and trigger exactly the kind of litigation that Obi pleaded against when he joined the NDC.
The fact that the NDRA was able to identify and publicise the discrepancy within hours of Obi and Kwankwaso’s registration with the NDC underscores how quickly administrative oversights can be weaponised in Nigeria’s charged political environment.
The timing of the NDRA’s statement, released on the same Sunday that Obi and Kwankwaso formally joined the NDC, has not gone unnoticed by political observers.
Obi had explicitly pleaded with the government at his NDC registration ceremony: “Please, don’t come here. We want to have peace. We don’t want cases.”
The emergence of the dual membership allegation on the very day of his registration, even if ultimately resolved by INEC’s clarification, illustrates the speed with which potential legal challenges can materialise around opposition parties.
Whether the NDRA’s statement was motivated by genuine civic concern over electoral compliance, by political calculation aimed at undermining the NDC at a critical moment, or by some other factor, the episode demonstrates that the NDC’s “no litigation” status, which Dickson celebrated as the party’s defining characteristic, will be constantly tested as the party’s profile rises and it becomes a target for the same scrutiny and adversarial attention that consumed the ADC.
INEC’s promise that “the needful will be done to update the portal” addresses the immediate discrepancy but leaves the systemic issue unresolved.
If the commission’s portal can display inaccurate records because parties fail to communicate changes, similar discrepancies could exist for other officeholders in other parties, creating potential legal vulnerabilities across the political spectrum.
A more robust system would require INEC to independently verify the status of party officeholders at regular intervals, or to require parties to confirm their current officeholders before each major electoral milestone, such as the submission of membership registers.
With the May 10 deadline for membership register submission just six days away, the accuracy of INEC’s records is not merely an administrative matter but a legal one. Any party that submits a register containing individuals who are listed as officers in another party could face challenges under Section 77 of the Electoral Act, regardless of whether the dual listing reflects actual dual membership or merely administrative lag.
For the NDC, INEC’s clarification that Egwuaba had resigned from the APM and is exclusively an NDC member resolves the immediate threat. The dual listing was an administrative artefact, not evidence of a legal violation, and INEC has committed to correcting the portal.
However, the episode serves as a warning. As the NDC transitions from a small, relatively obscure party to the primary opposition platform housing two presidential-calibre politicians and their massive support bases, every aspect of its organisational structure, legal standing, and compliance record will be subjected to intense scrutiny.
Dickson’s boast that the NDC has “no litigation whatsoever” may be accurate today. Whether it remains accurate as the party becomes the principal target of ruling party opposition, legal challenges, and the kind of “externally influenced legal problems” that Kwankwaso described as having destroyed his previous platforms, is the question that the coming weeks will test.
As the NDRA stated: “Nigeria’s democracy must be governed by rules not convenience.”
INEC has clarified the rules in this instance. The portal will be updated. The dual listing will be corrected. And the NDC’s record, for now, remains clean.
But in a political environment where administrative oversights can become legal weapons overnight, the NDC’s vigilance must match its ambition if it is to deliver on the promise of a platform where “peace” rather than litigation defines the opposition’s experience.
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