The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says Nigeria’s registered voters have risen to more than 103 million ahead of the 2027 general elections.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, disclosed this on Monday in Abuja at a strategic workshop with media executives organised by the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) in collaboration with the commission.
The workshop was themed, “Strengthening Democracy Through Partnership Among Editors, Civil Society and Electoral Institutions.”
Amupitan said the three-phase Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise attracted 10,772,421 new registrants.
He said 2,611,266 people registered during the first phase, 4,121,835 during the second phase and 3,867,997 during the third phase.
The chairman, however, said the figures remained subject to final verification following the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) cleanup.
“Following the conclusion of our three-phase Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise, which captured over 10.6 million new applicants, our Voter Register Department has completed the final Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) cleanup. Nigeria’s National Register of Voters is now over 103 million,” he said.
Amupitan said INEC had completed eight of the 14 major statutory activities contained in its timetable for the 2027 elections, adding that preparations had entered the “amber zone” as the election approaches.
He announced that the preliminary display of the voters’ register for claims and objections would take place from October 9 to 15, 2026.
He also said nationwide collection of Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) would begin on October 9, with newly produced cards to be distributed at Local Government Area collection centres.
According to him, INEC has introduced printable PVC technology to reduce the waiting period for voters to obtain their cards and prevent eligible voters who lose or have their cards stolen from being disenfranchised.
The chairman said the commission had acquired 57,000 new Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines as part of efforts to strengthen its technological capacity ahead of the elections.
He said INEC opted to upgrade existing electoral technologies rather than introduce untested systems shortly before the 2027 elections.
Amupitan said the upgraded BVAS, enhanced electronic result management system and other technologies were being deployed to ensure that every valid vote counted.
He added that INEC had introduced an enhanced eEC8A form to digitise and cryptographically authenticate polling-unit results before their upload to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal.
The commission, he said, was also deploying artificial intelligence-driven systems to detect anomalies in database traffic and strengthen cybersecurity around the electoral process.
On vote-buying and illegal campaign financing, Amupitan said INEC was working with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) to monitor campaign spending.
He said a joint financial monitoring mechanism would track suspicious and illegal campaign expenditure, while surveillance around polling units would be strengthened.
The INEC chairman warned politicians and their agents that violations of the Electoral Act would attract arrest and prosecution.
“Elections must be decided by the conviction of the voter, not the depth of a candidate’s pocket,” he said.
Amupitan also expressed concern over the spread of false information on social media, describing malicious disinformation as “citizenship terrorism through social media.”
He urged editors and journalists to verify information before publication, warning that false reports could suppress voter turnout, create panic and undermine credible elections.
The chairman cited previous cases involving old photographs, manipulated images and fabricated reports being presented as current election-related events.
He also cited a false report during the Federal Capital Territory elections claiming that members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) had been killed, creating the impression that Abuja was engulfed in violence. He said investigations later established that the report was false.
Amupitan urged newsrooms to take “a second, a minute” to verify information before publication, particularly as INEC was concerned about deepfakes, manipulated audio-visual materials, coordinated fake news and premature declarations of unofficial results.
He also warned against electoral violence, saying no political ambition was worth the loss of Nigerian lives.
According to him, INEC’s early-warning mechanism under the Inter-Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) was monitoring political violence, thuggery and inflammatory rhetoric ahead of the elections.
The chairman said the commission was also strengthening logistics and field operations, noting that readiness audits had been completed in the South-West and North-West geopolitical zones.
He said similar audits would be conducted in the remaining zones, covering state offices, storage facilities, security protocols and logistics.
Amupitan added that early procurement and distribution of non-sensitive election materials had commenced.
He said all electoral officers and temporary staff would be required to take an oath of neutrality under Section 26 of the Electoral Act 2026.
He warned that INEC would maintain zero tolerance for partisanship, negligence and compromised ethical conduct among its personnel.
Earlier, NGE President, Eze Anaba, called for a credible and transparent electoral process that would ensure voters, rather than the courts, determine election outcomes.
Anaba said elections were not merely about casting ballots but about building citizens’ confidence that their votes would count and that electoral institutions would act fairly and professionally.
He expressed concern over the growing reliance on the courts to resolve election disputes, saying the electoral process should be strong enough to reflect the choices of voters.
INEC National Commissioner, Mohammed Haruna, said the workshop was important because the commission had conducted several off-cycle and bye-elections since Amupitan assumed office.
He listed the Anambra governorship election, Federal Capital Territory Area Council elections, Ekiti and Osun governorship elections and several legislative bye-elections among polls conducted under the present commission.
Haruna said INEC had also monitored the primaries of all 22 registered political parties participating in the 2027 electoral process, including processes arising from court-ordered creation of new state constituencies.
Executive Director of the Centre for Media and Society, Akin Akingbulu, called for stronger newsroom verification mechanisms and greater transparency from INEC.
He said verification was a two-way process, arguing that newsrooms could not properly verify information that institutions failed to disclose.
Similarly, Executive Director of the International Press Centre, Lanre Arogundade, stressed the need for timely and transparent communication from INEC.
Arogundade said information gaps created opportunities for speculation and could allow false information to fill the vacuum.
He called for a healthy relationship between INEC and the media based on access, transparency and mutual responsibility, while preserving editorial independence and the media’s watchdog role.
Chief Press Secretary to the INEC chairman, Adedayo Oketola, described editors as the chief gatekeepers of electoral information and said direct engagement with newsrooms had become a priority for the commission.
In her goodwill message, INEC Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Victoria Eta-Messi, said the engagement would help align media leadership with the commission’s operational roadmap.
“We’re in the eye of the storm a lot of the times these days, and so it’s important that we are on the same page,” she said.
She urged editors to provide timely and accurate information, noting that misinformation and disinformation were undermining efforts to increase citizen participation in the electoral process.
