The Nigeria Democratic Congress has accused the ruling All Progressives Congress of using cash, political appointments and other inducements to lure its candidates into the governing party, less than three months before the 2027 general elections. In a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Osa Director, described the defectors as “bad rubbish” and said the NDC would hold fresh congresses to replace them. The allegation adds a sharper edge to a wave of opposition defections to the APC that has gathered pace since September.
“It has come to the attention of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, that some candidates of our party have been bribed by the APC to defect to the ruling and ruinous All Progressives Congress, APC, obviously for pecuniary reasons,” the statement read. The party said those who took what it called the bait lacked the values and ideological commitment expected of its members. “They were never truly of us. To them, we say good riddance to bad rubbish, and we wish them luck in their political misadventures,” Director said.
The statement did not name the defectors or the constituencies involved. About 12 NDC candidates were, however, received into the APC at its national secretariat in Abuja this month by the party’s National Chairman, Professor Nentawe Yilwatda. Accounts of the exact breakdown vary, but the group was drawn from candidates for House of Representatives and state House of Assembly seats. The group’s leader told the gathering that their decision was driven by a desire to support Nigeria’s progress and not by money, and no formal APC response to the bribery claim had been made public as of Wednesday.
The NDC is one of the newest platforms in the race, but also one of the most closely watched. Registered in February 2026, it became a major opposition vehicle after Peter Obi and former Kano State Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso left the African Democratic Congress in early May. Obi was ratified as its presidential candidate on May 29, setting up a rematch with President Bola Tinubu of the APC and Atiku Abubakar of the ADC, the three leading contenders of 2023. The party’s growth itself came partly through defections, with 17 members of the House of Representatives moving from the ADC to the NDC in May.
The traffic has since begun to run the other way. In late September, ADC House of Representatives candidates from Zamfara, Plateau, Taraba and Jigawa states defected to the APC and declared support for Tinubu’s bid for a second term. The NDC group followed in October, part of a reception at which about 25 entrants from both opposition parties joined the ruling party.
The bigger question is whether the NDC can still replace those who left. Section 31 of the Electoral Act 2026 allows parties to withdraw and substitute candidates not later than 90 days before an election, a period the Federal High Court in Abuja ruled in May that INEC could not shorten. With the presidential and National Assembly elections fixed for January 16, 2027, the 90-day mark for House of Representatives seats fell on October 18, two days before the NDC statement. For state Houses of Assembly, whose elections hold on February 6, 2027, the deadline falls on November 8.
There is a second hurdle. Under the new Act, parties cannot freely swap names already submitted to INEC, and substitution is permitted only in limited cases such as death or voluntary withdrawal. The NDC has not said whether the defectors have formally withdrawn their candidacies, a step that would determine whether a replacement can be made at all.
INEC has already shown it is applying the new law closely. This month, the commission left several governorship candidates off its final list for failing to comply with Section 77(5) to (7) of the Act, following a Supreme Court decision on the provisions. Parties that believe their candidates were wrongly excluded have until October 24 to notify the commission.
The NDC insisted the defections would not shake its campaign. It described them as “the last kicks of a dying horse that has seen the handwriting on the wall of its imminent defeat,” and urged its supporters not to be discouraged. The party closed its statement with its campaign slogan, “A New Nigeria is POssible.”