NDC Says It Has Uploaded Obi’s Name To INEC Portal Amid Court Battle
The Nigeria Democratic Congress says it has uploaded the name of its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s nomination portal, even as the party fights a Federal High Court ruling that voided the order behind its registration.
The party’s National Leader, Senator Seriake Dickson, who represents Bayelsa West, disclosed this in a statement on Monday. He said his own name and that of the presidential candidate had been uploaded, while the vice-presidential candidate’s details would follow once the required deposition was completed.
The announcement comes against the backdrop of a judgment delivered on Friday, June 26, 2026, by Justice Isah Dashen of the Federal High Court in Lokoja, Kogi State. In suit number FHC/LKJ/CS/49/2025, the court set aside its earlier December 10, 2025 judgment that had compelled INEC to register the NDC, holding that the proceedings were constitutionally defective because not all necessary parties were heard. The ruling followed an application by the Peace Movement Party, which argued that it had a legal interest in the matter and should have been joined before judgment. Justice Dashen ordered a fresh hearing with INEC, the PMP and the NDC joined as parties.
INEC has so far adopted a cautious posture. A spokesperson for the commission’s chairman, Professor Joash Amupitan, said INEC could neither comment on nor act on the judgment until it received the certified true copy.
The legal effect of the ruling remains contested. Dickson insists the party has not been deregistered. Speaking on Channels Television on Sunday, he argued that the Lokoja court had become functus officio and lacked the jurisdiction to sit on appeal over its own earlier decision. A different reading was offered publicly by senior lawyers, with one cited in reports arguing that the decision merely restored the status quo and that the party’s ballot status was unresolved pending the substantive suit.
The party says it has now moved to protect its position. Dickson stated that the NDC had filed an appeal alongside an application for a stay of execution, served on the INEC chairman and the commission.
The NDC’s troubles trace back to a rapid rise. The platform was registered earlier in 2026 through judicial intervention, after which it absorbed several prominent politicians. Obi, a former Anambra governor, emerged as the sole presidential aspirant and was formally ratified at a special convention in Abuja, with the motion moved by Senator Victor Umeh and seconded by former Deputy Senate President Ovie Omo-Agege. He had moved to the NDC after leaving the Labour Party.
The development sets up a familiar contest. Obi will again face President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the African Democratic Congress, a rematch of the 2023 three-way race in which Obi won about 25 percent of the vote and finished third.
For now, the clock is running. Under INEC’s timetable, the party has until July 11 to upload its National Assembly candidates and until July 17 to submit governorship and State House of Assembly candidates. Attention is expected to shift to the Court of Appeal, where the NDC’s challenge and the unresolved substantive suit will likely shape whether Obi’s name survives on the 2027 ballot.