101 days to 2027 polls: Your ambitions not worth blood of Nigerians, INEC warns politicians

…Vows arrests, sanctions for violence, hate speech, vote-buying
…Speaks on how it will ensure free, fair, peaceful election
…Set to track illegal campaign spending
…As voter register tops 103m, 57,000 new BVAS acquired, PVC collection begins Friday
…Why we introduced Form eEC8A

By Omeiza Ajayi

ABUJA: The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has warned politicians that their ambitions are not worth the blood of Nigerians, vowing arrests, sanctions and prosecution against parties, candidates and agents who resort to violence, hate speech and vote-buying ahead of the 2027 General Election.

The INEC Chairman, Professor Joash Amupitan, SAN, gave the warning on Monday in Abuja at a Strategic Workshop for Editors, organised by the Nigerian Guild of Editors, NGE, in collaboration with the Commission.

“As electioneering intensifies across the country, I must sound a clear note of warning to all political parties, candidates and campaign managers: INEC will not stand by and allow political competition to devolve into violence, intimidation or inflammatory rhetoric.

“Democracy thrives on the clash of ideas, not the clash of weapons or the proliferation of hate speech,” he stated.

Amupitan said the Commission had put machinery in place to track offenders.

“Through the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security, ICCES, we have activated an early-warning tracking framework to log incidents of political violence, thuggery and dangerous campaign rhetoric.

“Any political party or candidate implicated in inciting violence, disrupting rivals’ rallies or deploying armed thugs will face direct statutory sanctions and swift prosecution. No political office in this country is worth the blood of a single Nigerian,” he added.

Departing from his prepared speech, the Chairman said he had just been shown evidence of the kind of conduct he was warning against.

“Just before I was invited to come and speak, somebody shared with me… a person, an NDC candidate in Kano State, who was campaigning yesterday with a gun in his hands, brandishing the gun, and so on and so forth.

“Another person was threatening that with AK-47s, they will kill all of us in the Commission. So, that is how elections have turned into in Nigeria of today,” Amupitan lamented.

He appealed for restraint, saying: “Let us not forget our role as citizens of Nigeria to be patriotic. Because election is a periodic process for the election of leaders every four years.”

Vote-buying

The Chairman also announced a crackdown on money politics.

According to him, the integrity of the ballot box is fatally compromised when a citizen’s vote is treated as a commodity for sale.

“The Commission is taking an uncompromising stance against vote-buying in all its forms ahead of the 2027 General Election,” he said.

He disclosed that the Commission was working with the Federal Ministry of Justice, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, NFIU.

“Joint financial monitoring teams will be deployed to track illegal campaign spending and conduct undercover surveillance at polling units nationwide. To the political actors and their agents: attempt to trade cash or material gifts for votes, and you will face immediate arrest and prosecution under the Electoral Act 2026. Elections must be decided by the conviction of the voter, not the depth of a candidate’s pocket,” he declared.

Peaceful polls

To show how the Commission intends to secure a peaceful poll, Amupitan recalled the Osun governorship election.

He said that after challenges in the build-up, he called his National Commissioners and told them the Commission must perform its own role, starting with keeping the election peaceful.

“I went to Osun, and I said it during the stakeholders meeting: that Osun election will be decided not by the gun, but by the ballot. I invited and requested citizens and the electorate to come out en masse and vote, and that on election day, whatever it was, must be decisive,” he said.

The Chairman said the Commission also resolved that voting must commence in every polling unit in Osun State at 8:30 a.m., as advertised.

“We made it, we were able to ensure that polls opened early enough, voting started as advertised in at least 94% of the polling units before 9:00 a.m., and had 100% commencement of voting,” he said.

He said risk analysis and management helped, as did result management.

“That is the only way that can save us in this country from all the problems we have had since 2023, if we manage our results effectively, optimally, and transparently, and then ensure that the results are declared as soon as we are done with collation,” he said.

Amupitan said the Commission’s role must, however, be matched by others.

“This is a systemic problem, because this is a situation where public trust is at its lowest ebb. And each time people come and speak on our behalf, let our results speak for us,” he said.

On readiness, the Chairman said the Commission had conducted the Anambra Governorship Election, the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Council Polls, the Ekiti and Osun governorship polls and a number of bye-elections.

“Every single one of these elections has passed the integrity test,” he said.

On February 26, 2026, the Commission issued a Revised Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the 2027 General Election, setting 14 statutory activities.

Amupitan said eight had been executed and the ninth was nearing conclusion.

The timetable, he said, had been converted into an operational plan across 23 headquarters directorates, 36 State Offices, the FCT and all 774 Local Government Area, LGA, offices.

The elections will hold on Saturday, January 16, 2027, for the Presidential and National Assembly, and on Saturday, February 6, 2027, for the Governorship and State Houses of Assembly.

103m registrants

On the voter register, Amupitan said Phase I of the Continuous Voter Registration, CVR, ran from August 25, 2025, to December 10, 2025, and registered 2,611,266 voters.

Phase II, from January 5 to April 17, 2026, registered 4,121,835, while Phase III, from May 11 to July 26, 2026, registered 3,867,997, which together amount to over 10.6 million new registrants.

He said the Commission introduced an Online Registration Portal in the third phase.

It also introduced printable Permanent Voter Card, PVC, technology under Section 18(1) of the Electoral Act 2026.

“To ensure that waiting months for a card becomes a relic of the past,” he said.

After the public display of the Preliminary Register for claims and objections and the final Automated Biometric Identification System, ABIS, cleanup, “Nigeria’s National Register of Voters is now over 103 million,” he said.

He announced that nationwide collection of PVCs will begin on Friday, October 9, 2026.

“We have completed the processing and distribution of Phase 1 PVCs to all local government centres,” he said, appealing to editors to tell citizens where to collect their cards.

57,000 new BVAS

On technology, the Chairman said the Commission had acquired 57,000 new Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, devices “for optimal performance.”

Existing devices, he said, had undergone “software hardening, battery optimisation, and biometric calibration to prevent accreditation bypass and eliminate manual manipulation.”

He said the enhanced eEC8A system digitises polling unit result sheets, authenticates them cryptographically and uploads them directly from polling units to the INEC Result Viewing Portal, IReV.

Amupitan said Form eEC8A will halt manipulation of votes at the polling unit level before the figures are entered into the BVAS and transferred to IReV.

He added that the Commission was working with international technology partners on AI-driven anomaly detection tools to monitor database traffic and shield its portals from cyber intrusion.

The downloadable PVC, he said, was tested in Osun and used to let voters whose cards were stolen before the election vote.

Bulletproof vests, cars

Amupitan disclosed that at the Commission’s North-West zonal engagement in Kaduna State, staff from Zamfara, Sokoto and other states asked for bulletproof vests and vehicles because of insecurity in parts of those states.

He said the Commission might secure bulletproof vehicles for staff in flashpoints.

The Commission, he said, had completed physical readiness audits and staff engagements in the South-West and North-West zones, covering state office facilities, safe storage, security command protocols and logistics networks.

The other four geopolitical zones will follow.

To end the late arrival of polling materials, Amupitan said early procurement and delivery of non-sensitive materials to State Offices had begun.

The Commission has also procured “brand-new operational pick-up vehicles to State Offices and LGAs nationwide to navigate challenging terrains.”

On discipline, he said all electoral officers and temporary personnel must take an oath of neutrality under Section 26 of the Electoral Act 2026.

“INEC has zero tolerance for partisanship, administrative negligence, or compromised ethics. Any official found wanting will face immediate administrative measures,” he said.

Speaking on the issue of staff welfare, he said the Commission had “recently introduced the Consolidated Election Management Body Salary Structure, CEMBSS, accompanied by a 150% increase in State Office operational overheads effective 1st July 2026. We are working on the cash backing to ensure immediate implementation.”

Turning to the media, Amupitan warned that deepfakes, manipulated audio-visual content, coordinated fake news campaigns and premature declaration of unverified results could incite unrest and threaten election officials.

He said: “This is an era where we have a lot of citizenship terrorism through social media. And we have to put our feet on the ground because that is your profession that is being hijacked.”

The INEC Chairman proposed a three-point compact with the Guild.

First, newsrooms should set up digital fact-verification desks, with the Commission giving editors immediate access to verify field incidents, logistics and security reports.

Second, the Commission will work with ICCES to ensure that accredited journalists get unhindered access and full security protection at polling units and collation centres.

Third, the two sides should set up a periodic feedback mechanism through 2027.

“On our part, INEC remains an open book. We will provide timely information to prevent the vacuum that ‘fake news’ often fills.

“Our allegiance is to the Constitution and the law, and our sole obligation is to the Nigerian electorate. We have no preferred candidate, no preferred political party, and no agenda other than guaranteeing a free, fair, transparent, and credible election,” he said.

NGE President, Mr Eze Anaba

The NGE President, Mr Eze Anaba, said the partnership was timely as the country approached another round of elections.

“Elections are not merely about casting ballots. They are about trust. They are about citizens believing that their votes will count, that the process will be transparent and that the institutions responsible for conducting elections will act fairly and professionally,” he said.

Anaba said the media had a critical role in building and sustaining that trust.

“As editors, we determine, to a significant extent, what information reaches the public, how it is presented and the context in which it is understood. With that responsibility comes an obligation to uphold accuracy, fairness, balance and the public interest,” he said.

He acknowledged that the media cannot carry the responsibility alone.

“At the same time, we recognise that the media cannot perform this responsibility effectively without credible, timely and accessible information from the electoral management body,” he said.

He warned of the environment in which both sides operate.

“In an environment increasingly polluted by misinformation, disinformation, manipulated content, deepfakes and partisan narratives, the relationship between INEC and the media must therefore be one founded on openness, mutual respect and regular engagement,” Anaba stated.

The National Commissioner in charge of the Information and Voter Education Committee at INEC, Malam Mohammed Kudu Haruna, said the workshop was meant to ensure that next year’s election, “in 101 days’ time today, will be the freest, fairest, and most credible election in the country.”

The Chief Press Secretary and Media Adviser to the INEC Chairman, Mr Adedayo Oketola, said the workshop had three aims: to rebuild institutional trust through open dialogue, to combat information disorder, and to foster shared democratic responsibility.

He said it would establish “seamless 24/7 fact-verification loops” between newsrooms and the Commission.

The INEC Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Mrs Victoria Eta-Messi, said the engagement was meant to align media leadership with the Commission’s operational roadmap.

She said it would help “evolve ways of countering disinformation and misinformation,” and asked editors to share timely and accurate information.

The Team Leader of DAI, Mr Rudolf Elbling, said the media was the oxygen of democracy but lamented that today’s oxygen had become toxic.

He urged the media to lead the fight against disinformation.

The Executive Director of the Centre for Media and Society, Dr Akin Akingbolu, said: “Verification is a two-way street. Newsrooms cannot verify what institutions have not disclosed.”

The Executive Director of the International Press Centre, Mr Lanre Arogundade, said the relationship between INEC and the media should rest on access and mutual respect without compromising editorial independence. He said the protection of journalists covering the electoral process must be addressed.