*Says outstanding election funds expected before end of November
By Abiodun Folarin
The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Joash Amupitan, SAN, has urged Nigerians to trust his leadership to deliver free, fair, and credible general elections in 2027, pointing to measurable operational improvements recorded in recent off-cycle polls and new technical safeguards designed to prevent a repeat of the 2023 election controversies.
Prof. Amupitan spoke on Thursday at Chatham House, London, during a high-level dialogue convened in partnership with the Kimpact Development Initiative (KDI) under the theme, “Nigeria’s 2027 Elections: Democratic Trajectory and Regional Stability Beyond the Ballot.”
Addressing the trust deficit left by the 2023 presidential election, the INEC Chairman acknowledged that the controversies surrounding that exercise severely dented public confidence in the electoral body damage from which the Commission is still working to recover.
“First and foremost, let me speak about what happened in 2023, which resulted in a significant trust deficit for INEC damage so large that the Commission has not yet fully recovered from it,” he said.
However, Prof. Amupitan, who assumed office in October 2025, noted that the Commission had treated every subsequent election as a practical laboratory to identify operational weaknesses and strengthen accreditation, voting, and result management.
Responding to a question on why Nigerians should trust his leadership ahead of 2027, he cited the successful conduct of the Anambra and Osun governorship elections, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council polls, the Ekiti governorship election, and 16 legislative by-elections.
“Why must Nigerians trust me? Nigerians must trust me because, number one, I have conducted off-cycle elections and observers agree that the recent election in Osun State marked a clear improvement,” he said. “Every election is a lesson. The 2023 general election was a major lesson for Nigeria, and the Anambra election was another.”
He noted that Anambra and Osun previously had histories of prolonged, inconclusive governorship contests recalling that the 2021 Anambra governorship poll took roughly five days to conclude whereas targeted administrative reforms under his watch enabled results in both states to be declared the day after voting.
New Safeguards on IReV and Collation
Highlighting insecurity, logistics, and result management as INEC’s three top priorities for 2027, Prof. Amupitan revealed that the Commission’s post-2023 audit traced the most acute result management failures to collation centres rather than polling units.
To eliminate discrepancies between polling unit figures and collation sheets, he announced that INEC has built strict validation safeguards into its system so that inaccurate results or figures reflecting over-voting cannot be uploaded to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV).
“We found that the core problem of election result management and declaration in Nigeria is not even at the polling unit it is at the collation centres,” he explained. “In 2023, there were instances of inaccurate results or results with over-voting being uploaded onto IReV. We have now devised a technical safeguard: if a result is not accurate at the polling unit, it will not go to IReV at all.
“The moment a result appears on IReV, citizens can trust what they see. By eliminating inconsistencies at the source, collation will become a transparent formality.”
Prof. Amupitan disclosed that while INEC considered introducing an entirely new electoral technology for 2027, it opted instead to upgrade and harden its existing infrastructure due to the tight operational timeline before the polls.
Addressing malfunctions of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) linked to extreme heat and storage conditions in 2023, he announced that INEC is constructing climate controlled storage facilities across all states.
Additionally, the Commission has procured extra devices and reduced the maximum number of voters assigned per BVAS machine from 1,250 to 850, ensuring polling units exceeding 850 registered voters are deployed with multiple devices.
To test these upgrades ahead of the polls, Prof. Amupitan announced a nationwide mock accreditation and voting exercise scheduled for November 28, 2026.
“On the 28th of this month, we will conduct a mock accreditation and voting exercise across all states of the federation to simulate the presidential election and verify that we have gotten both accreditation and electronic result transmission right,” he stated.
On election financing, the Chairman confirmed that while INEC has received a substantial portion of its 2027 election budget, it awaits the release of the outstanding balance part of which is earmarked for the recruitment and welfare of ad hoc personnel and has received assurances that the funds will be released before the end of November.
Addressing questions regarding his neutrality following social media allegations linking his phone number to a controversial X (formerly Twitter) account, Prof. Amupitan categorically denied ever operating an X account. He noted that an independent forensic review had been obtained and the matter formally referred to the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Inspector-General of Police for investigation.
He also dismissed suggestions that his past legal representation in political disputes would compromise his impartiality, stressing that he acted strictly within his professional duties as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria prior to his appointment.
“My loyalty is solely to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Electoral Act,” he affirmed. “Every constitutional institution including the Presidency, the National Assembly, and state governors owes its primary loyalty to the Constitution and the rule of law.”
On concerns regarding alleged voter register anomalies, including claims of an 85 per cent surge in registrants in a ward in Ebonyi State, he stated that the Commission had already investigated and resolved the complaint in line with statutory procedures, noting that the Electoral Act provides clear windows for public claims, objections, and requests for certified true copies of the register.
Concluding his remarks, Prof. Amupitan urged Nigerian youths to stay actively involved in the democratic process and guard against digital disinformation.
“This country belongs to young Nigerians, and they must not relent in working for the Nigeria they desire,” he said. “Misinformation remains one of the greatest threats to our democracy. Citizens must verify information before acting or sharing, and give our democracy the chance to succeed.”
The 2027 Presidential and National Assembly elections are scheduled for January 16, 2027, while the Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections will be held on February 6, 2027.
