INEC Omits Pantami from Final List of Gombe Governorship Candidates
The omission comes days after the former minister reportedly won the PDP’s fresh governorship primary, raising questions about the status of his 2027 candidacy.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has omitted Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami from its published final list of candidates for the 2027 Gombe State governorship election, despite his emergence as the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) candidate in a fresh primary election.
The omission is contained in a document titled Governorship Election 2027 – Final List of Candidates, which lists governorship and deputy governorship candidates from several political parties but does not include Pantami or a PDP governorship candidate for Gombe State.
Pantami reportedly won the PDP’s fresh governorship primary on September 29, 2026, following a court decision that nullified the party’s earlier primary and ordered a rerun.
His absence from the published list has raised questions about whether the PDP’s nomination was accepted by the electoral commission and whether the party fulfilled all applicable requirements for the recognition of its candidate.
However, the published document does not state why Pantami’s name was omitted. It would therefore be premature to conclude that INEC has disqualified him or to attribute the omission to any specific legal or procedural issue without further clarification.
The development places the spotlight on the PDP’s nomination process in Gombe State, with INEC’s official explanation and the party’s response expected to clarify the status of Pantami’s governorship ambition.
Neither the commission’s reason for the omission nor any formal response from Pantami’s camp is established in the document reviewed for this report.
The Analyst Online Media will continue to monitor developments surrounding the PDP’s Gombe governorship candidacy ahead of the 2027 election.
THE ANALYST | EDITORIAL NOTE: This report is based on a supplied image of a document presented as INEC’s final list of candidates. The document’s authenticity and the reason for Pantami’s omission have not been independently verified.