Senator representing Anambra Central, Victor Umeh, has dismissed claims that the NDC lacks the organisational strength and candidates to compete effectively in the 2027 general elections, insisting that the party has candidates across all elective positions and is building structures down to the polling-unit level.
Speaking in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Friday, Umeh said attempts to portray the party as weak were politically motivated propaganda aimed at discouraging voters from supporting the opposition.
He said, “This is a time of political campaigns, and people want to confuse the public with propaganda and things that will make the voting public be scared of aligning with any political party, by trying to bring to the fore that this party is not strong enough to be supported.
“So you better support the party that is strong. And one of the ways of doing this is to dismiss the strength of the opposition or the political parties in the contest.
“They claim that the NDC did not have candidates for governorship in two states of the federation. They listed the states and included Zamfara State.
“And immediately I read the report, I dismissed it because the NDC governorship candidate in Zamfara State is Senator Kabiru Marafa, who was my colleague in the 8th Senate. And I know that he has been coming to the party, we have been meeting, and he was duly nominated as our governorship candidate for Zamfara State.
“It is like that in other places, but I’m happy that the leader of the party, Senator Seriake Dickson, appeared on prime time two days ago, where he made it clear that NDC has governorship candidates in 28 states where governorship elections will hold in the forthcoming general elections.
“I’m also aware that we have candidates for all the elective positions: 109 senatorial candidates, 360 House of Representatives candidates. In fact, it was even a problem for the party to select which candidate to put forward.
“So the party was not in lack of aspirants, as it were, for them to then go and make no filings in various constituencies. So we have such number down to the grassroots level. We have House of Assembly candidates all in place for the various elections.
“So I want to tell you that the public should not be swayed with such propaganda. The party is very entrenched and is amassing membership by the day, not only those who are contesting elections, but those who believe in the mission of the party.
“So the party enjoys large following in Nigeria today.”
On questions about the absence of independent sentiment analysis to measure the party’s popularity across the country, Umeh said such assessments would become clearer as campaigns progress.
“The party is everywhere. And the public have so much confidence that this party will present something that will help them out of the woods.
“So in terms of number, people conduct opinion polls. These are things that will be generated in the course of this campaign.”
Responding to the argument that the party should have commissioned independent polling ahead of the election, Umeh disagreed, saying the campaign period was still relatively new.
He said, “I flatly disagree. I disagree with you.
“In terms of opinion polls and sentiment analysis across the country, the campaigns were just lifted 19th of August, less than one month.
“And we are going to do a build-up of momentum to this election. By the time you go halfway, you will begin to see data, both commissioned people have produced, and independent people.
“There are people who are studying the responses of the electorate towards the election. It’s not only the party that will conduct it, because when the party conducts it, it will be subjective.
“So we leave independent analysts and opinion poll watchers to go around and begin to report to the Nigerian public what they are finding in the field, how the citizens are responding to all the political parties, not just NDC.
“But I assure you that by the time we get to midway, it will be obvious to you where the Nigerian people stand.”
On the party’s preparedness to protect its votes in 2027, particularly through polling-unit agents, Umeh said the NDC had begun building its structure to ensure representation across the country.
He said, “The thing is very simple. If a party is present in all the constituencies in Nigeria, with candidates contesting the elections, the party will be closer to the polling units.
“It will be a different case where you don’t have candidates. Where you don’t have candidates, the party will be absent in the polling units.
“Today I’m giving you that NDC has been able to field candidates for all the positions that are being contested in the 2027 general elections.
“So it trickles down to the presence of the party, down to the polling units. Because when you have candidates, they mobilise agents.
“When you don’t have candidates, you will be empty in those places.
“So we are satisfied that we have the candidates who are contesting for these elections very strongly across the country. And within us, we’ve already started preparing the way to build the polling agents.
“NDC has a structure where every polling unit, we have 13 people in that polling unit dedicated to duty. In that polling unit, on the day of election, we have in our structure what is called polling booth executives. So it’s in our constitution.
“And we’re building that strength across the country. Every polling unit will have 13-man executives in that polling unit.
“Is it 13 people that will not be able to produce one agent that will represent the party? Of course, the answer will be obvious to you.
“We are aware of the need to have agents in every polling unit in Nigeria. And thank God, our party has become very appealing to the Nigerian public. And people have surged into the party to contest these various elections.
“These candidates are the people who drive the process down to the polling units. So we are going to be present in every polling unit in Nigeria.
“We, for example, are the candidates in the election. Apart from the 13-man polling-unit executives the party has in its constitution, I, as a candidate, am also building a 20-man coordinator in every polling unit.
“So that if you ask me to raise polling agents, we won’t be scampering for who will represent the party.
“So let’s not take the events of the past and begin to procrastinate that doing this thing will be impossible.
“As a senator, I was part of the Electoral Act amendment process. And I remember the controversy we had about transmission of results in real time by making sure that transmission is done electronically through a portal.
“We were the people that voted for it, even though there was an amendment to it.
“That amendment has put the party on notice that we must have agents at every polling unit to get the EC8A series on every polling unit on the day of election.
“So we have been preparing ahead, knowing that at the end of it, result popularly, we must be able to be in possession of the polling-unit results signed by the presiding officers.
“So we have enough time to prepare for this, and we are doing it.
“So be assured that on the day of election, you won’t find any polling unit unmarked by agents of the NDC.”
Addressing the controversy over candidates’ names uploaded on the Independent National Electoral Commission portal for the Anambra State House of Assembly elections, Umeh argued that political parties have the authority to determine their candidates after completing their internal processes.
He said, “On the issue of uploading of candidates’ names and publishing of the actual candidates for any political party, the law is settled on that. The Electoral Act is also settled on that.
“The law is that a political party has its sole right and authority to submit the list of the candidates it intends to sponsor in any election to the Independent National Electoral Commission.
“And when the process begins, the party will conduct primaries. And when the primaries are conducted, the results are generated in the field.
“And these are the primaries that INEC was invited to come and monitor. And when INEC monitors, of course, it takes away the list of people they observe that emerged at the primaries.
“But the process also has a provision for appeal against the outcome of primaries.
“Because many issues may arise, and that’s the reason why appeals are allowed. Every political party has an appeal panel that will entertain appeals against the outcome of the results in the primaries.
“And it is when the party adjudicates over the appeals and determines the merit or otherwise of each appeal, it produces the final list of candidates which it will now forward to the Independent National Electoral Commission.
“And if it forwards names of candidates to the Independent National Electoral Commission, the commission is bound to accept those candidates coming from the political parties.
“The law does not give INEC discretion to go and upload results of the primaries they said they collected when they monitored. Because those results are still like raw materials.
“It is when the party entertains appeals against the outcomes that they come out with the final list of candidates.
“In the case of NDC, NDC conducted the primaries. Yes, agreed. Some people imagined that the primaries, those results were challenged as provided in the process law and guideline.
“The party adjudicated over these appeals and came out with the final list of its candidates and submitted to the commission.
“The commission cannot go and upload the names they said obtained on the day of the primaries.”
Asked who submitted the disputed names to INEC, Umeh said the party did not submit them.
He said, “Nobody did. Simon is lying.
“We have engaged, they didn’t say the truth. What they did was that those candidates who they published their EC9s, they did not get their forms from the party.
“The party uploads the EC9 forms through the access code given to the political parties by INEC. And the national chairman of the party emphatically has denied ever uploading those names they published.
“We know what transpired. Some of those candidates working with some people downloaded EC9 forms and then filled, completed them and submitted outside the line provided by the guideline that it must come from the political party to an upload.
“So when our party uploaded some of those names, INEC bounced them back. But they have the result of the primary in their back-end server. And they are in conflict with what the party is bringing.
“INEC is not part of the appeal process of the party. That’s what I first of all laid the foundation to you. So they cannot do that justifiably.
“We have written, the party has written a follow-up letter to them. They are bound by that because the Supreme Court has ruled in a plethora of cases that it is the party that will say who their candidates are. INEC cannot.
“INEC is an observer and it can best monitor the process. So if they don’t do that, we are giving them a chance to do the needful. We are taking lawful means to bring them to do the lawful thing.
“If they don’t do it, the party has recourse to an action in court to determine the legality of INEC uploading results of the political party, results of primaries.”
Boluwatife Enome
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