As the door finally closed on aspirants and intending defectors following the expiration of the deadline for submission of electronic and hard copies of party membership registers to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in line with the amended Electoral Act, attention is shifting to the electoral umpire if it will penalise politicians caught in the web of double party registrations.

This is coming on the heels of a last-minute rash of defections that saw politicians crisscross from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), troubled Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and African Democratic Congress (ADC) to new fringe alternatives, Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) and Allied Peoples Movement (APM).

The window for defection by candidates intending to participate in the 2027 election closed yesterday, even as some stakeholders pleaded for a deadline extension, which effectively ended on May 10, 2026. In the revised timetable of activities, INEC stipulated that political parties should submit their membership registers to the commission at least 21 days before holding the straw polls to nominate their candidates.

Given that the parties have between May 10 and 31 to conduct the primaries, it was obvious that only names contained in the registers as at 12 midnight on Sunday would participate in the primary either to elect or be elected as candidates.

As attention shifts to the primaries in the next three weeks, many politicians are unaware of the booby traps ahead with respect to dual membership of political parties. In previous election cycles, it was customary for politicians who lost out in a party primary to secure the ticket of an available party, a situation that has been disbarred by the amended Electoral Act, with punishments contained for defaulting politicians.

What does the law say?

Recall that in March, weeks after President Bola Tinubu signed the amended Electoral Act into law, the House of Representatives passed a law criminalising dual party membership in a single sitting, imposing a N10 million fine or two years in prison or both.

On March 11, 2026, the House of Representatives did something unusual even by the standards of a legislature that occasionally moves quickly when it chooses to: it took a bill through first reading, second reading, full committee stage as a Committee of the Whole, and third reading, all in a single plenary session. What took most legislation weeks or months was done in hours. The law was swift and bold, without surviving a constitutional challenge.

The speed was deliberate. With the party primary season approaching and INEC’s membership register deadlines already set, the House leadership clearly wanted the law in place before politicians had a chance to manoeuvre around it.

The amendment inserts three new subsections into Section 77 of the Electoral Act. The core rule is simple: a person shall not be registered as a member of more than one political party at the same time. Where dual membership is discovered, both registrations are voided. The person ceases to be a member of any party until they regularise their position.

The emphasis on knowledge and intent is significant. The provision is not designed to catch clerical errors; for example, individuals whose names are accidentally duplicated on two party registers due to administrative overlap are not expected to incur criminal liability. The bill targets deliberate double registration: politicians who maintain a foot in two camps ahead of primary season to maximise their options.

If this becomes law, enforcement will rest largely with INEC, which already receives party membership registers before primaries. Where a name appears in more than one register, the commission will be expected to flag the duplication. What happens next, such as notification, opportunity to regularise, referral for prosecution, will need to be spelt out by INEC via regulations.

The bill now awaits Senate concurrence. If passed as is, it goes to the President for assent. If the Senate amends it, a harmonisation process follows. But with INEC’s membership register submission deadline passed for the 2027 election cycle, a law that is still in legislative transit when primaries begin will be difficult to enforce for the current cycle.

Recently explaining the reason why the Senate refused to take a position on the proposed amendment to the Electoral Act seeking to criminalise dual party membership, the upper chamber insisted it could not deliberate on the matter until it was formally transmitted from the House of Representatives.

Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Publicity, Yemi Adaramodu, in a clarification made last month, had said: “Even if any amendment is coming, we are running a bicameral legislature. So, we can’t comment on it until it gets to us. If anything scales through the first and second readings and does not go to public hearing and then to the Committee of Whole and the House of Reps to deliberate and pass to us, we cannot comment on it. There can’t be an amendment yet until it comes to us from the House.

Adaramodu’s position reflects the constitutional requirement that any amendment to an existing law must be passed by both chambers of the National Assembly before being forwarded to the President for assent.

Politicians in disarray

Already, some politicians are being called out for dual party membership. The Member representing Warri Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Thomas Ereyitomi, yesterday condemned the circulation of a purported NDC membership card bearing his photograph and personal details, describing it as a malicious act of political forgery allegedly orchestrated by political detractors seeking to tarnish his image.

In a disclaimer issued from his office, the lawmaker categorically denied ever applying for membership in the NDC or authorising any person or group to register him in any political party outside the ruling APC. He reaffirmed his unwavering loyalty to the APC, insisting that he remains a bona fide member of the party and has already been duly screened and cleared under its platform ahead of forthcoming primaries.

Ereyitomi described the alleged fake membership card as a calculated attempt to create what he termed a “false anti-party narrative” aimed at misleading the public and distracting constituents from what he described as the developmental and legislative strides recorded in the constituency under his representation. According to him, no amount of fabricated propaganda or what he called “Photoshop politics” can erase years of dedicated service, loyalty, and visible achievements delivered to the people.

The lawmaker further disclosed that relevant security and investigative agencies have already been alerted over the matter, adding that efforts are underway to trace and prosecute all individuals connected to the alleged cyber manipulation, forgery, and political sabotage. He warned those behind the act that democracy must not be reduced to what he described as a theatre of falsehood and criminal deception.

Focus is now trained on Rivers State, where political watchers will follow development playing out in the game of wits between the Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike and Governor Siminalayi Fubara, where the former Rivers governor is employing the use of a ‘Rainbow Coalition’ to dislodge Fubara’s loyalists at the next election.

It was gathered at the weekend that Wike, in a move to reposition his political base, directed his loyal PDP candidates in the state to defect to the APC, and by Saturday, they had begun the process of obtaining APC nomination forms, signalling a major realignment in the state’s political landscape.

Fallout of this was Kingsley Chinda, a loyalist of the FCT Minister, who was successfully screened and cleared by the APC ahead of its gubernatorial primary election in Rivers State on Saturday. Chinda, a PDP member and current Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, joined the Rivers State gubernatorial race to face off with Fubara.

Yesterday, the Minister disclosed that he will use the ‘rainbow coalition’ to prosecute the forthcoming 2027 elections in Rivers. Wike, who spoke during an inspection tour of ongoing infrastructure projects in Abuja ahead of the third anniversary of President Tinubu’s administration, said political actors involved in the coalition would assess prevailing realities before making decisions.

He said, “That is the essence of the rainbow coalition in Rivers. We’ll look at where we have strength, compare notes and vote accordingly.”

The minister also dismissed attempts to associate him with the issues surrounding the screening of aspirants in Rivers by the ruling APC, insisting that he had no role in the process. Wike clarified that Fubara has not informed him of any crisis concerning the screening that took place on Sunday in Abuja.

While some politicians made a public announcement of their defection, many others switched parties secretly. Yesterday, a former Chairman, Board of Trustees of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Muhammad Musa Bagana, insisted that there is no faction in the party.

Bagana was reacting to the defection of Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed and the Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, and their supporters to the party. He described the governors’ defection to APM as a giant step forward in the quest for sustainable democracy and development in Nigeria.

There were reports at the weekend that the founding leaders of APM are leaving no stone unturned to reclaim what they describe as the rightful ownership of the party, which they said was established by the pioneer Board of Trustees chairman, Bagana.

The report, which described Bagana as the chairman of the party, went further to describe the national Chairman of the party, Yusuf Mamman Dantalle, as a factional chairman, adding that there were moves to institute a legal battle to stop Dantalle, who doubles as the Chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council, IPAC, from parading himself as the national chairman of the party.

The report said that Dantalle was being challenged at the Supreme Court after the Court of Appeal set aside the Federal High Court judgment, which had recognised Bagana’s faction as the authentic executive committee.

However, reacting in a statement on Monday, Bagana rejected the report, saying that the movement of the governors to the party has attracted the envy of anti-democratic and reactionary forces who want to destabilise the party with fake news of a faction.

Bagana said: “Although I once had a political disagreement with the APM National Chairman, Dr Yusuf Dantalle, that misunderstanding had long been amicably resolved, settled and reconciled. There is no leadership case in any court in Nigeria between Mohammed Bagana and Yusuf Dantalle.

“I was shocked to read about the Bagana faction of the party dismissing the defection of Governors Bala Mohammed and Seyi Makinde to APM in a statement purportedly signed by one Muhammed Bello, who claimed to be the spokesman for the so-called faction. It is fake news emanating from mischief makers and figments of their fertile imaginations. I don’t know anything about the statement; I did not authorise it and don’t have any spokesman.

“APM is united and strong under the leadership of Dr Yusuf Mamman Dantalle. The INEC website is there to verify the authentic leadership of any political party. I therefore disclaim the statement aligning me with a faction APM. It is not true.”

Meanwhile, some members of the opposition alleged that the stipulation for submission of membership registers was targeted at last-minute defections, such as was exemplified by Peter Obi in 2023; others said it was in a bid to preserve the cause of internal democracy in the political parties.

However, a coalition of civil society leaders under the aegis of the Movement for Credible Elections has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission to extend the timelines for the 2027 general elections by 90 days to ensure fairness, inclusiveness and credibility in the electoral process.

The coalition, in a petition submitted to the INEC Chairman at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja, argued that ongoing legal disputes and internal crises within some political parties could undermine preparations for the elections if the current timetable is retained.

Speaking on the development, Head of the MCE National Secretariat, Olawale Okunniyi, said the request became necessary to protect democratic stability and guarantee equal opportunities for all political actors ahead of the polls.

According to him, the coalition, working in collaboration with the Good Governance Group, sought a 90-day extension for the submission of party membership registers and the conduct of pre-primary activities.

Okunniyi said the demand was rooted in constitutional provisions and electoral laws, particularly Section 77(2) of the Nigerian Constitution, which mandates political parties to maintain valid membership registers.

He noted that recent Supreme Court pronouncements and leadership disputes involving parties such as the African Democratic Congress, Social Democratic Party, People’s Democratic Party and Labour Party had created uncertainty capable of affecting their ability to organise congresses and credible primaries.

“The issue goes beyond administrative scheduling. Nigeria’s electoral process is not governed by timelines alone but by the constitutional obligation of fairness, inclusivity and equal opportunity for all political actors,” he stated.

The coalition further argued that strict adherence to the existing timetable under the prevailing circumstances could create structural disadvantages for some parties and disenfranchise members from meaningful participation in internal democracy.

Okunniyi said the proposed extension would restore parity among political parties, strengthen public confidence in INEC and reduce the risk of avoidable litigation capable of threatening the integrity of the 2027 elections.

He added that leaders of the coalition, including Oby Ezekwesili, Usman Bugaje and Isuwa Dogo, were expected to meet with the INEC Chairman soon to further discuss the matter. As of press time, INEC had yet to officially respond to the request.

In another development, the Yoruba Ronu Leadership Forum also said INEC needed to extend the election timetable, arguing that the move would enable opposition parties to put their houses in order and address pending court cases.

President of the forum, Akin Malaolu, alleged that Bola Tinubu, INEC and the courts were working on a script to suppress the opposition, adding that the only way to dispel the allegation was for INEC to extend the election timetable while the courts accelerated hearings on cases relating to political parties.

Meanwhile, after beating the deadline by seven days, Obi, who defected from the ADC to the NDC, has alleged that he was compelled by political wickedness and affected litigations in his former party to jump ship.

In a post on his X (formerly Twitter) handle, the former LP presidential candidate remarked: “This decision was not made out of anger, personal ambition, or convenience. It came after deep reflection on the present condition of our nation and the urgent need to rescue Nigeria from the dangerous path it is currently heading.

“I left the ADC for the same reason I left the Labour Party: the severe, orchestrated litigation and internal crises deliberately designed to ensure that I… do not effectively participate in the electoral process.”

He lamented that certain actions that could weaken Nigeria’s democratic system were being orchestrated by highly placed individuals, urging authorities to avoid encouraging divisions within political parties.

He stated: “Democracy must never become a weapon against the people… Opposition parties must not be weakened or destroyed, because when democracy loses balance, the people ultimately suffer.”

Also, the last-minute defections from the ruling APC in Katsina showed that the crisis of confidence in various political parties was not limited to the opposition platforms.

A member of the House of Representatives in the state, Hon. Abubakar Yahaya Kusada, decried the recent high-profile defections from the APC in the state, noting that the moves posed a negative omen for the ruling party.

Kusada, who represents Kankia/Kusada/Ingawa, was reacting to the defection of his colleague, Hon Sani Lawal (Baure/Zango federal constituency), who reportedly left the APC after failing to get a consensus ticket for the 2027 general election.

Recall that before now, another house of representatives’ member from the state, Hon Shehu Tafoki (Kankara/Faskari/Sabuwa) had left the APC for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Kusada described the defections as a worrisome development, especially ahead of the general elections, even as he warned that the development could affect the chances of the ruling APC during the coming general elections. (The Guardian)

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