The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), 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 protesters, believed to be Nigerians living abroad, surrounded the vehicle conveying Amupitan outside Chatham House, where he was scheduled to participate in a panel discussion on Nigeria’s preparations for the elections.
They shouted at the INEC chairman, accusing the commission of abandoning its neutrality and favouring President Bola Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
The demonstrators demanded Amupitan’s resignation and described INEC as a “criminal organisation” over allegations of duplicate voter registrations, questionable polling units and photographs suspected to have been generated using artificial intelligence.
The protest followed growing 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 public concerns.
Amupitan asks Nigerians to trust him
Speaking earlier at the event, Amupitan urged Nigerians to trust him to deliver a free, fair, credible and inclusive election in 2027, assuring them that he would not disappoint.
He acknowledged that the commission was yet to fully recover from the loss of public confidence caused by technical glitches during the 2023 general election.
The INEC chairman also promised that inaccurate polling unit results would not be uploaded to the commission’s Result Viewing Portal (IReV) during the 2027 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.
Amupitan listed the Anambra and Osun governorship elections, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council polls, the Ekiti governorship election and 16 legislative by-elections among the elections conducted under his watch.
He recalled that the 2021 Anambra governorship election took about five days to conclude, while results in the recent Anambra and Osun elections were declared the day after voting.
