ADC’s spokesman, Bolaji Abdullahi, urged INEC to take all steps towards ensuring that Bala is prosecuted.

In a statement he signed, Abdullahi maintained that Bala was promoting falsehood, hence should be prosecuted according to the law.

Bala had claimed that his faction had obtained INEC’s access code and uploaded candidates for the 2027 general election.

The claim, which has been widely shared on social media, suggested that Bala’s faction had successfully completed the upload of candidates on INEC’s nomination portal.

But INEC’s Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Mrs Victoria Eta-Messi, described the claim as untrue, insisting that Bala is not recognised by the Commission as the national chairman of the ADC.

Reacting via a statement, Abdullahi said: “The African Democratic Congress (ADC) welcomes the prompt clarification by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which unequivocally confirmed that the document circulated by Mr. Nafiu Bala purporting to show that he had obtained the Commission’s access code and uploaded candidates on behalf of the ADC for the 2027 general election was forged, and that the claim itself was entirely false.

“The issue before us is no longer simply about the continuous false statements that have been issued by Nafiu Bala Gombe at the behest of his sponsors. It is about the clear and unmistakable attempt to mislead the Nigerian public.

“To publicly claim that one has gained access to INEC’s restricted nomination platform and exercised powers reserved for duly recognised party officials is a grave matter that deserves the immediate attention of law enforcement agencies.

“As a responsible party, the ADC therefore calls on INEC to take all the necessary steps to ensure that Mr Nafiu Bala and anyone else involved in originating or promoting this falsehood are investigated and prosecuted in accordance with the law.”

Presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, Adewole Adebayo, on Tuesday declared that there is nothing like a Muslim-Muslim ticket, stressing that Nigerians are not interested in such ahead of the 2027 presidential election.

Adebayo maintained that Nigerians want a righteous leader who is fit for the job and is not one who emerges based on religious sentiments.

Appearing on Arise Television’s Morning Show, the SDP presidential candidate described the President Bola Tinubu and Kashim Shettima ticket as zero-zero ticket.

He said: “There is nothing like the Muslim-Muslim ticket, even when the contraption was brought up four years ago and I was in Kano, I was asked the same question while meddling with the Ulamas and I let them know that if you are hoping for a Muslim-Muslim ticket in President Tinubu and Vice President Shettima, you will be lucky to even have a single Muslim out of the two.

“And it turned out now that it’s not a Muslim-Muslim ticket, from the point of view of Muslims in Nigeria it’s a zero-zero ticket because in Islam what is expected of a leader in Islamic jurisprudence is not the religion of that leader but justice.

“The reason why Muslims get involved in politics is to have a just society and there are guidelines in Islamic jurisprudence regarding politics. In Islam, it’s expected that if you are a good Muslim you do not give public office or responsibility to anyone who is not fit for that, so you look among yourselves for the most suitable and committed person.”

He insisted that the concept of Muslim-Muslim ticket was created to defraud Nigerians.

“Second, you don’t give power based on favoritism or bias, and you don’t give power based on expectation of reward.

“So the whole concept from the beginning was just to defraud the populace by using religious sentiment. What the North and all Nigerians are looking for is a righteous leader no matter the person,” he said.

Noting that Nigerians are groaning due to the toMuslim-Muslim ticket, Adebayo said one of the proponents, Nasir El-Rufai and his family are crying, adding that Nigerians do not support it.

“So when you say you are looking for a Muslim-Muslim ticket and there is no justice anywhere, even one of the proponents, El-Rufai who was celebrating it, he and his family are now crying for justice and that is the biggest irony you can have.

“Nobody was more of a Muslim-Muslim ticket than El-Rufai who can’t get justice, so I don’t think that Nigerians are interested in that at all and the government and APC are just looking for what to say, there is no support for a Muslim-Muslim ticket anywhere,” he added.