A Federal High Court in Abuja has set aside the nomination of retired Major General Nuhu Angbazo as the African Democratic Congress (ADC) governorship candidate in Nasarawa State.

The judgment

In a ruling reported on Wednesday, 4 November 2026, Justice Mohammed Umar held that the party's governorship primary was inconclusive because results from Karu Local Government Area were not included. The judge said shutting out party members in Karu meant the exercise could not validly produce a candidate. The case was brought by a former Minister of Environment, Mohammed Abdullahi, who took part in the primary alongside Angbazo and Senator Mohammed Onawo, who represents Nasarawa South.

Orders

The court ordered the ADC to hold a fresh primary in Karu, restrained Angbazo from presenting himself as the party's candidate, and barred the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from recognising him as such. The plaintiff's lawyer welcomed the ruling and said the party must now complete the primary properly before any candidate can be recognised.

Background

The ruling adds to the ADC's legal troubles. This week, another Federal High Court judgment removed the party's David Mark-led national leadership and voided Atiku Abubakar's presidential nomination, a ruling the party has said it will challenge. Nasarawa is governed by the APC's Abdullahi Sule, who is completing his second term. Angbazo has not publicly said whether he will appeal.

What happens next

Unless the ruling is overturned on appeal, the ADC will have to return to Karu to finish the primary before it can field a governorship candidate in the state.

FCT Minister Nyesom Wike has taken another swipe at Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC).

What Wike said

Speaking at a town hall meeting in Abonnema, Akuku-Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State, on Thursday, 5 November 2026, Wike reportedly said that people who wanted a president of social media should vote for Obi, but that he should not be voted for as president of Nigeria. He also mocked Obi's well-known habit of carrying his own bag, saying it did not show that he had the capacity to rule the country.

Background

Wike, a former Rivers governor, leads the Rainbow Coalition, a group of PDP and other politicians backing President Bola Tinubu's re-election in the presidential election scheduled for 16 January 2027. He has repeatedly criticised Obi in recent weeks. Obi, a former Anambra governor, has a large following among young voters, especially online, and is running with Rabiu Kwankwaso as his running mate. Wike made the comments during a busy week in which he also spoke about Governor Siminalayi Fubara's political future and denied any role in the court ruling on the Imo West Senate ticket.

How people reacted

Obi's supporters responded angrily online, with many saying Wike could not campaign without mentioning Obi and describing the former governor's simple lifestyle as a strength. Supporters of the minister said Obi's online popularity had not translated into votes in Rivers State in the past. Obi's campaign had not publicly responded to the latest remarks at the time of writing.

A former senior official of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has questioned how about 1.5 million questionable records found their way into the country's voter register.

What he said

Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, a former Director of Voter Education and Publicity at INEC, said in a television interview reported on Friday, 6 November 2026, that such problems should not happen given the safeguards the commission has put in place. He noted that the law on who can register is simple: a Nigerian citizen aged 18 or above who turns up in person to register. Because registration requires physical presence and the capture of fingerprints and photographs, he said, he could not understand how so many questionable entries had been made.

His questions for INEC

Osaze-Uzzi said the commission, led by its chairman, Professor Joash Amupitan, had not explained what period its review of the register covered or how the problem entries were first detected. He said tools such as the Automated Fingerprint Identification System and artificial intelligence can help to remove duplicates, but that INEC should still give a clear account of how the records got into the database in the first place.

Background

INEC regularly cleans up the register to remove duplicate, underage and other invalid entries before elections, and the issue of the accuracy of the register has long been debated. The 2027 general elections are due in January, with the presidential poll on 16 January. INEC also urged young Nigerians this week to turn their online enthusiasm into votes, saying votes cannot be counted on social media.

Why it matters

A clean voter register is central to public confidence in elections. Civil society groups have urged INEC to publish more detail on the clean-up so that eligible voters are not wrongly removed.

What was supposed to be a peaceful political campaign reportedly took a dramatic turn when some angry youths in the crowd began throwing stones towards the stage while Nasarawa State Governor Abdullahi Sule was addressing supporters.

What happened

The incident happened during a presidential campaign rally on Thursday, 5 November 2026, and created tension at the venue as the gathering was disrupted.

Photos from the event show large stones lying on the red carpet of the stage, close to the governor's feet. In one image, a man in a suit bends to pick up one of the stones as the governor, microphone in hand, points towards the crowd, with security officers standing beside him.

Why the anger?

The exact reason for the crowd's anger remains unclear. The incident does, however, raise questions about growing frustration among sections of the population and how political leaders are being received at public gatherings.

For many Nigerians struggling with the rising cost of living, unemployment and insecurity, political promises are becoming harder to accept without visible results.

Even so, it would be premature to blame those grievances for the disturbance without hearing from the people involved.

Violence is never the answer

Whatever the reason, throwing stones at a political gathering is dangerous and should never be encouraged. People have every right to express their dissatisfaction with their leaders, but political disagreement should never turn violent.

Over to you

Are Nigerian politicians beginning to face the anger and frustration of the people they have been making promises to for years?