The Independent National Electoral Commission has formally recognised Senator Saliu Mustapha as the Peoples Democratic Party’s senatorial candidate for Kwara Central, confirming the validity of his substitution onto the PDP ticket after he abandoned the All Progressives Congress. The decision, which carries significant implications for the 2027 electoral landscape in Kwara State, reflects INEC’s application of the Supreme Court’s most recent ruling on party membership and primary eligibility rules.
Mustapha’s political journey is not simply a story of one man switching parties. His defection has drawn attention because of the company he has chosen to keep since crossing the aisle, having aligned himself with FCT Minister Nyesom Wike’s so-called Rainbow Coalition — a cross-party political grouping that has been quietly assembling ahead of the next general elections, drawing figures from the APC, PDP and beyond into what many observers regard as Wike’s personal political empire in the making.
The senator’s move carries an additional edge given credible reports that he was previously among those who worked to turn certain APC governors against Wike, including Kwara’s own Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq. That he has now entered Wike’s orbit makes his defection one of the more striking reversals in recent Nigerian political manoeuvring.
The legal foundation for INEC’s recognition rests on the Supreme Court’s judgment in INEC v. Zenith Labour Party, which upheld Section 77 of the Electoral Act and restated a requirement that political parties must submit their membership registers to INEC no fewer than 21 days before any primary election, congress or convention. The court went further, affirming that only individuals whose names appear in those duly submitted registers are eligible to vote or to stand as candidates in such internal processes. This ruling does not merely settle a procedural dispute — it establishes a firm legal standard that INEC is now applying to substitution cases, of which Mustapha’s is among the most high-profile.
By adding Mustapha to its official records as the PDP’s Kwara Central candidate, INEC has signalled that his substitution onto the ticket was conducted in compliance with those rules. The commission’s decision amounts to a green light for his 2027 senatorial campaign under the PDP banner.
Separately, INEC’s release of its final list of governorship candidates for Ogun State has produced its own controversy, with PDP’s Ladi Adebutu and his running mate conspicuously absent from the official register. The exclusion leaves the PDP’s entire governorship bid in Ogun State in an uncertain position, raising questions the party has yet to answer publicly.
What both cases illustrate is that INEC is increasingly using the courts’ interpretations of the Electoral Act to impose discipline on a party system that has long treated candidate substitution and membership rules as formalities to be worked around rather than laws to be observed. Whether that discipline holds as 2027 draws closer remains the more important question.