The 2027 general elections could face serious security and logistical challenges if the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) does not receive adequate funding, the commission’s chairman, Prof. Joash Ojo Amupitan, warned on Wednesday.
Speaking at the sixth Conference and Retreat for Senior Police Officers in Owerri — themed “Developing a Nigeria Police Roadmap for Effective Management of Security During Elections” — Amupitan said financing was essential to meet the security and logistical demands of the presidential, National Assembly, governorship and state Houses of Assembly polls.
He noted that INEC’s funding is constitutionally provided as a first-line charge on the Consolidated Revenue Fund, but said the scale of the commission’s responsibilities requires sustained financial support. Those responsibilities extend beyond conducting elections to voter registration and the registration of political parties, and the commission has statutory powers to request deployment of security agencies for elections and registration exercises.
“Sometimes it is not what you would like to do that you are able to do because of financial constraints,” Amupitan said. “The system does make allocations of what is available and what is affordable at a particular time for the expenses and appropriation of the agencies, including the police and also including INEC.”
He stressed that an accurate voters’ register is the foundation of credible elections, warning that an outdated or inaccurate register could undermine inclusiveness. Election spending, including security costs, must be treated as a collective national responsibility because INEC administers contests across the three tiers of government.
Adequate funding is needed to deploy personnel and materials to local government areas, wards, registration areas and polling units, he said, adding that security alone will not ensure a smooth election if logistics are lacking.
Amupitan highlighted the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) as the key coordination mechanism among INEC, security agencies and government institutions. Established after the 2011 elections, ICCES now operates at federal, state and local levels, with the Inspector-General of Police participating at the national level, commissioners of police at state level and divisional police leadership at the local level.
Stronger coordination among agencies will be required ahead of 2027, Amupitan said, with the police remaining the lead agency for election security. He cited recent off-cycle elections as evidence of the importance of coordinated security interventions and urged lessons from those polls—particularly in intelligence gathering, logistics and inter-agency cooperation—to inform preparations for 2027.
“In Nigeria, we want the best. We want our electoral system to be 100 per cent. But sometimes we don’t ask ourselves the question: if we want the nation to be perfect, there must be a cost for it,” he said, urging authorities to provide the necessary resources.
Amupitan also called on senior police officers to maintain professional neutrality, gather intelligence proactively and coordinate with other agencies to protect the integrity of the ballot.
Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, president of the Nigerian Bar Association, urged the Nigeria Police Force to support INEC’s work to ensure free, fair and credible elections.
