2027: INEC warns of ₦10m fine, 12-month jail term for abusive campaign rhetoric

ABUJA: Ahead of the 2027 general election, the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC has warned that politicians and political parties who employ abusive, intemperate or inflammatory languages in their campaigns risk heavy financial penalties and possible imprisonment under the Electoral Act 2026, as the country grapples with a fresh wave of threats by political office holders against dissenting voters.

Chief Press Secretary/Media Adviser to the INEC Chairman, Mr Adedayo Oketola,  in a telephone interview with our correspondent on Sunday, said campaign rhetoric crosses the legal threshold into electoral intimidation the moment it moves beyond robust partisan debate or policy critique and enters the realm of coercion, hate speech, or the threat of harm.

“Under the Nigerian legal framework, rhetoric becomes punishable intimidation when it incites ethnic, religious, or regional hostility through abusive, base, or slanderous language explicitly designed to provoke violent emotions or target specific groups,” Oketola said, citing Section 96 of the Electoral Act 2026.

Quoting the law directly, Oketola said; “A political campaign or slogan shall not be tainted with abusive language directly or indirectly likely to injure religious, ethnic, tribal or sectional feelings.”

He added that the law further provides that “abusive, intemperate, slanderous or base language, insinuations, innuendoes designed or likely to provoke violent reaction or emotions shall not be employed or used in political campaigns.”

According to him, campaign rhetoric transitions into outright intimidation when it threatens force or violence, whether by directly or indirectly warning voters, candidates, or electoral officials of physical harm, economic reprisal, or social ostracisation to compel or suppress support for a candidate. He stressed that political campaigns must also not create an atmosphere of fear calculated to deter voter turnout or disenfranchise specific demographics.

On what INEC can actually do about the trend, Oketola clarified that the Commission is an election management body and not a security agency, but explained that Section 95 of the Electoral Act 2026 explicitly prescribes the security architecture for political rallies in relation to the operational roles of the Nigeria Police Force, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps NSCDC, and other security institutions.

“Beyond inter-agency security coordination, INEC is statutorily empowered to monitor political campaigns and enforce compliance with the Code of Conduct for Political Parties. The Commission can issue formal queries and sanction non-compliant parties within its administrative limits,” he said.

Oketola disclosed that to enforce deterrence, Section 96(7) of the Electoral Act 2026 prescribes severe statutory penalties for offenders. “Any candidate who commits these offences is liable upon conviction to a maximum fine of ₦5,000,000 or imprisonment for a term of 12 months,” he said.

He added that political parties face even stiffer sanctions. “A non-compliant political party is liable to a fine of ₦10,000,000 in the first instance, and ₦2,000,000 for each subsequent offence,” he stated.

Oketola insisted, however, that electoral integrity cannot be preserved by INEC alone, describing it as a collective stakeholder duty. “The Nigeria Police Force and other security agencies have a clear duty to prevent the breakdown of law and order during political campaigns,” Oketola said. 

He added that the Media must actively play its watchdog role by calling out purveyors of incendiary statements, while traditional and religious leaders must also wade in, using their moral authority to encourage politicians to eschew inflammatory rhetoric and avoid provoking violence in the country.

The INEC spokesman’s warning comes against the backdrop of a fresh wave of threats by highly placed political office holders across the country in recent weeks, with a section of Nigeria’s political elite openly threatening voters, opponents and dissenting residents with violence, eviction and physical harm ahead of the 2027 polls, triggering condemnation from civil society groups, rights organisations and opposition politicians.

Among the most prominent cases is that of Osun East Senator, Francis Adenigba Fadahunsi, who was invited and questioned by the Nigeria Police Force over a viral video in which he was heard telling All Progressives Congress APC supporters in Ilesa, “Until the day of election, when you see any Accord party member here in Ilesa, kill them.” Governor Ademola Adeleke rejected his media office’s subsequent clarification, describing the remarks as a national security threat and demanding his arrest.

In the Federal Capital Territory FCT, the Chairman of Kuje Area Council, Samuel Danjuma Shekwolo, similarly stirred controversy after warning residents who do not support the APC to relocate ahead of 2027, prompting Amnesty International Nigeria to condemn the remarks as a “call to violence.”

In Borno State, the Commissioner for Youth and Sports Development, Sainna Buba, threatened that those who refuse to support the APC in 2027 “will be flogged,” while separately warning that anyone who crossed the ruling party would have a finger broken.

In Yobe state, the situation went from the bizarre to the ridiculous as the state chairman of the APC, Alhaji Mohammed Gadaka, triggered widespread condemnation after urging married women in the state to leave their husbands if the men stand in the way of their voting for the party in the coming general elections, a remark he later withdrew following public outcry.

Gadaka, who made the comment while addressing hundreds of new defectors into the APC in Nangere town on Thursday, went as far as promising to personally settle the “new bride price” for any woman who ended her marriage on account of her loyalty to the party.

Other flashpoints include Kebbi State, where the Chairman of Gwandu Local Government Area, Alhaji Atiku Ahmad Mandiya, told supporters that anyone who spoke against Governor Nasir Idris “should be dealt with,” and Ebonyi State, where Governor Francis Nwifuru warned newly inaugurated local government chairmen that they would be removed from office if they failed to deliver their councils to the APC in 2027.

The International Republican Institute IRI, in a pre-election assessment of Nigeria’s democratic environment, disclosed that civil society monitors recorded more than 81 election-related violent incidents in Osun State alone in the year preceding the August governorship poll, while a separate Pre-Election Security Risk Assessment by the Kimpact Development Initiative KDI documented 73 election-related violent incidents resulting in 29 deaths leading up to local polls in the state.

It is against this backdrop that INEC, through Oketola, has moved to remind political actors of the legal consequences awaiting those who cross the line from campaign rhetoric into intimidation, insisting that the burden of enforcement rests not on the Commission alone but on security agencies, the media, and traditional and religious leaders working together.

“Political campaigns should be platforms of competing ideas, not theatres of war,” Oketola said.