Ahead of 2027 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has announced that Nigeria’s national register of voters has risen to more than 103 million ahead of the 2027 general elections.
This follows the completion of the three-phase Continuous Voter Registration exercise, which attracted 10,772,421 new registrants, subject to final verification through the Automated Biometric Identification System, ABIS.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, on Monday in Abuja at a strategic workshop with media executives organised by the Nigerian Guild of Editors in collaboration with INEC.
Amupitan, who delivered the keynote address at the workshop, said the commission had completed eight of the 14 major statutory activities contained in its timetable for the 2027 elections, describing the preparations as having entered the “amber zone” as the countdown intensifies.
According to a statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Mr. Adedayo Oketola, the engagement with editors was critical to rebuilding institutional trust, combating information disorder through fact verification and promoting shared responsibility for credible elections
The INEC Chairman said the first phase of the CVR, conducted between August 25 and December 10, 2025, registered 2,611,266 voters, while the second phase, held from January 5 to April 17, 2026, recorded 4,121,835 registrations.
He stated that the third phase, which ran from May 11 to July 26, 2026, attracted 3,867,997 new registrants, bringing the total new registration to 10,772,421.
Amupitan said the commission had completed the final ABIS cleanup, while the preliminary display of the voters’ register for claims and objections would take place nationwide from October 9 to 15.
He also announced that nationwide collection of Permanent Voters’ Cards, PVCs, would commence on Friday, October 9, with newly produced cards distributed to Local Government Area collection centres.
The chairman said INEC had introduced printable PVC technology to reduce delays in obtaining replacement cards and ensure that eligible voters were not disenfranchised, particularly in cases of lost or stolen cards.
Beyond the voter register, Amupitan said INEC had strengthened its technological capacity ahead of the elections with the acquisition of 57,000 new Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, machines.
He said the commission had opted to improve existing electoral technologies rather than introduce untested systems shortly before the 2027 polls, adding that upgraded BVAS, an enhanced electronic result management system and other technologies were being deployed to ensure that every valid vote counted and was seen to count.
Amupitan said the commission had also introduced an enhanced eEC8A form to digitise and cryptographically authenticate polling-unit results before their upload to the INEC Result Viewing, IReV, portal.
He added that artificial intelligence-driven systems were being deployed to detect anomalies in database traffic and strengthen cybersecurity around the electoral process.
On vote-buying and illegal campaign financing, the chairman said INEC was collaborating with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, NFIU, to monitor campaign expenditure.
He said a joint financial monitoring mechanism would track suspicious and illegal campaign spending, while surveillance around polling units would also be strengthened.
Amupitan warned politicians and their agents that violations of the
Electoral Act would attract arrest and prosecution, stressing that “elections must be decided by the conviction of the voter, not the depth of a candidate’s pocket.”
He also raised concerns over the growing use of social media to spread false information capable of undermining elections, describing malicious disinformation as “citizenship terrorism through social media.”
The chairman urged journalists and editors to verify information before publication, warning that false reports could suppress voter turnout, create panic and undermine otherwise credible elections.
He cited the circulation of old photographs, manipulated images and fabricated reports as examples of the emerging threats, including a false report during the Federal Capital Territory elections alleging that members of the National Youth Service Corps had been killed.
Amupitan said INEC was particularly concerned about deepfakes, manipulated audio-visual materials, coordinated fake news and premature declarations of unofficial results.
He further disclosed that the commission’s early-warning mechanism under the Inter-Consultative Committee on Election Security was monitoring political violence, thuggery and inflammatory rhetoric ahead of the polls.
The INEC chairman said readiness audits had been completed in the South-West and North-West geopolitical zones, covering state offices, storage facilities, security protocols and logistics, while early procurement and distribution of non-sensitive materials had commenced.
He added that all electoral officers and temporary election staff would be required to take an oath of neutrality under Section 26 of the Electoral Act 2026, warning that INEC would maintain zero tolerance for partisanship, negligence and compromised ethical conduct.
Earlier, President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, Eze Anaba, called for a credible and transparent electoral process capable of ensuring that voters, rather than the courts, determine the outcome of elections.
He 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.
INEC National Commissioner, Mohammed Haruna, said the workshop was particularly significant given the number of off-cycle and bye-elections conducted by the commission under the present leadership, including the Anambra governorship election, FCT Area Council elections, Ekiti and Osun governorship elections and legislative bye-elections.
The Executive Director of the Centre for Media and Society, Akin Akingbulu, and his counterpart at the International Press Centre, Lanre Arogundade, called for stronger verification mechanisms and more timely and transparent communication from INEC to close information gaps that could fuel speculation and misinformation.
