Protesters block INEC chair’s vehicle in London, demand resignation

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Joash Amupitan, was confronted by protesters in London on Thursday over alleged irregularities in the preliminary voters’ register ahead of the 2027 general elections.

The demonstrators surrounded the vehicle conveying Amupitan outside Chatham House, where he was expected to participate in a panel discussion on Nigeria’s preparations for the 2027 polls.

The protesters, believed to be Nigerians living abroad, shouted insults at the INEC chairman and accused the commission of abandoning its neutrality in favour of President Bola Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress.

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They also demanded Amupitan’s resignation, labelling INEC a “criminal organisation” over alleged duplicate voter registrations, questionable polling units and photographs suspected to have been generated using artificial intelligence.

The demonstration followed mounting criticism of the commission after images and records purportedly showing suspicious entries in the preliminary voters’ register circulated publicly.

INEC had acknowledged irregularities in the registration process and announced an investigation into the affected records, further fuelling the controversy.

‘Trust me I won’t fail you’

Speaking earlier at the event, Amupitan asked Nigerians to trust him to deliver a free, fair, credible and inclusive election next year, promising to not fail them

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This was as he said the commission is yet to recover from the trust deficit created by the technical glitches associated with the 2023 general election, and vowed that inaccurate polling unit results will not reach the INEC Result Viewing Portal IReV in 2027.

“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.

He listed the Anambra and Osun governorship elections, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council polls, the Ekiti governorship election and 16 legislative by-elections.

Amupitan recalled that the 2021 Anambra governorship poll took roughly five days to conclude, whereas results in Anambra and Osun were declared the day after voting under his watch.