Insecurity is a major threat to the January and February 2027 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared yesterday.
The electoral agency added that it would collaborate with the police to ensure that no Nigerian who desires to vote in the elections is disenfranchised as a result of insecurity.
It also identified logistical challenges and inadequate funding for the lead security agency as potential crisis areas if they are not properly addressed.
INEC Chairman Joash Amupitan spoke yesterday in Owerri, the Imo State capital, on the sidelines of the sixth Conference and Retreat for Senior Police Officers.
The Professor of Law and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) explained that vote-buying had moved away from polling units, hence the need for intelligence gathering to prevent the buying and selling of votes.
He pledged to make the January 16, 2027 presidential and National Assembly elections and the February 6 governorship and Houses of Assembly elections credible, free and fair.
He explained that after five off-cycle elections, beginning with the November 2025 Anambra State governorship election and last week’s legislative by-elections, INEC, under his leadership, had learnt valuable lessons that would help it conduct credible elections in 2027.
The INEC chairman also stressed the need for adequate funding, professional police neutrality and effective coordination through the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES).
President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya (SAN), urged the police to give Amupitan and INEC the necessary support.
She said effective policing support was vital to safeguarding the electoral process and delivering free, fair, credible and transparent elections.
Amupitan said insecurity remained INEC’s foremost concern because violence in some parts of the country could prevent eligible Nigerians from voting.
‘It’s a major source of concern for us. That can be a source of disenfranchisement of Nigerians, and we don’t want any Nigerian to be disenfranchised,’ he said.
He said INEC was working with the police, the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) and other security agencies to develop strategies for conducting elections in volatile areas.
Amupitan said the commission would convene a meeting of ICCES to address some of the challenges ahead of the general elections.
ICCES, he explained, provides a platform for INEC, security and other government agencies to coordinate election security at the federal, state and local government levels.
He said the mechanism, which emerged after the 2011 elections following concerns over post-election violence, had evolved into a structured system, with the Inspector-General of Police participating at the national level, commissioners of police at the state level and divisional police leadership at the local level.
He stressed that stronger coordination would be required ahead of 2027 and urged senior police officers to maintain professional neutrality, improve intelligence gathering and strengthen inter-agency cooperation.
The INEC chairman said politicians were adopting new methods of vote-buying, while some Nigerians remained willing to sell their votes.
He said many instances of vote-buying no longer occurred at polling units, making intelligence gathering critical to detecting and stopping the practice.
INEC, he said, was working towards a broader task force involving the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, the AGF’s office, ICCES and law enforcement agencies.
‘We don’t have powers to arrest them. We don’t have powers to investigate,’ he said, adding that enforcement remained the responsibility of the security agencies.
He said INEC would continue to improve logistics and result management while working with law enforcement agencies to ensure that offences under the Electoral Act were investigated and prosecuted.
On disputes arising from political party primaries, Amupitan said matters within the jurisdiction of the courts would have to be resolved through litigation.
He said the Electoral Act was clear that disputes over primaries were for the courts to determine, including, where necessary, up to the Supreme Court.
However, he said such disputes would not necessarily prevent INEC from conducting elections because elections were contested by political parties rather than individual candidates.
‘Whatever decision that comes out at the end of the day, INEC will abide by it,’ he said.
Amupitan also said adequate funding was critical to providing the security, personnel and logistics required for credible elections.
In a statement by his Chief Press Secretary/Media Adviser, Adedayo Oketola, the INEC chairman said the commission’s funding was constitutionally provided as a first-line charge on the Consolidated Revenue Fund, but its responsibilities required sustained financial support.
He said INEC conducts presidential, National Assembly, governorship and State House of Assembly elections, in addition to voter registration and the registration and monitoring of political parties.
The commission also has statutory powers to request the deployment of security agencies for elections and voter registration, he said.
‘Sometimes, it is not what you would like to do that you can do because of financial constraints,’ Amupitan said.
He said funding was particularly important for deploying personnel and electoral materials to local government areas, wards, registration areas and polling units.
He added that even where security agencies maintained peace, inadequate logistics could still undermine an election.
Amupitan said INEC was applying lessons from recent off-cycle elections to its preparations for 2027, particularly in intelligence gathering, logistics and inter-agency coordination.
He said the commission had conducted five off-cycle elections without any being declared inconclusive, adding that each election had provided lessons for subsequent polls.
‘We started with the Anambra election. We learned some things from Anambra and ensured that they did not repeat in the election of FCT,’ he said.
He said the commission had similarly applied lessons from the FCT and Osun elections to strengthen its preparations.
The electoral agency also conducted off-cycle governorship elections in Ekiti and, only last week, legislative by-elections in Gombe, Kano, Bauchi and Delta states.
The INEC chairman also urged political parties to make campaigns issue-based rather than personal.
‘Campaigns should be based on issues, not on personality,’ he said, blaming some negative campaign practices on lack of political tolerance.
He said INEC was working with law enforcement agencies to ensure that offences under the Electoral Act were investigated and prosecuted.
He also urged politicians to avoid treating elections as a ‘do or die’ affair and to refrain from campaigns of calumny and denigration.
Amupitan attended the retreat with National Commissioners Dr Ken Ukeagu and Rear Admiral Jamila Abubakar Malaga (rtd.); Imo State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Chukwuemeka Ibeziakor; and Oketola.
Others were Ahmad Yusuf, Executive Assistant (Finance), and Ezeh Emmanuel, Head of Legal Department, INEC Imo State.