The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Joash Ojo Amupitan (SAN), has assured Nigerians that the days of ballot box snatching and manual manipulation of election results are over, declaring that the commission’s technological safeguards are now strong enough to protect every vote cast in the 2027 general elections.
Amupitan gave the assurance on Wednesday in Abuja while receiving the Director-General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, during a courtesy visit to the INEC headquarters. The meeting also served as a platform for both institutions to strengthen collaboration on voter education ahead of the 2027 polls.
The INEC chairman said the commission would immediately intensify civic and voter education campaigns, stressing that voter apathy and the spread of misinformation remain major threats to credible elections.
According to him, Nigerians must be made to understand the value of their votes and the measures put in place to safeguard the electoral process.
“We need to teach them why their vote matters and how our new legal and technological safeguards protect their choices. We must look the rural farmer, the marketplace woman and the disillusioned urban youth in the eye and explain to them, in the language they understand, that because of the current technological infrastructure, the era of snatching ballot boxes or rewriting results manually is gone,” he said.
Amupitan also highlighted the commission’s operational successes during the February 21 Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council elections and the June 20 Ekiti State governorship election, citing more than 90 per cent early opening of polling units, seamless voter accreditation through the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), and prompt upload of election results to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal.
Despite these achievements, he expressed concern over the low voter turnout recorded in both elections, attributing it partly to widespread confusion among urban voters over polling unit realignments and voter registration transfers.
“This is a clear indicator that while our technology is moving forward, civic familiarity with the evolving system is lagging. It is a loud diagnostic signal that far more needs to be done in the area of intensive, deep-rooted voter education, and it proves that we cannot afford to wait until the eve of the 2027 polls to start talking to our people,” he said.
Amupitan reiterated INEC’s commitment to working closely with the National Orientation Agency to improve public awareness and boost voter participation ahead of the 2027 general elections.
