Nigerian protesters on Thursday surrounded a vehicle carrying the Independent National Electoral Commission Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, outside Chatham House in London and called for his resignation over alleged irregularities in the preliminary voters’ register.
Amupitan was due to speak at a panel discussion on Nigeria’s preparations for the 2027 general elections.
The demonstrators, believed to be Nigerians living abroad, accused INEC of compromising its impartiality and favouring President Bola Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress. They described the commission as a “criminal organisation” and cited alleged duplicate registrations, photographs they said were generated or manipulated using artificial intelligence, and questionable polling units in the preliminary register.
The protest came amid growing criticism of INEC following the circulation of images and records purportedly showing suspicious entries in the register. The controversy intensified after the commission acknowledged irregularities in the registration process and announced an investigation.
On November 9, Amupitan said INEC had removed 1,608,660 invalid registrations following a review of the 2025/2026 Continuous Voter Registration exercise. The commission also said it had removed records belonging to 873 verified deceased persons.
Amupitan further disclosed that 54 people across 10 states had been identified as allegedly involved in registration irregularities and could face disciplinary action, including prosecution. He said the suspected offences included multiple registrations, substituted photographs and breaches of registration procedures.
INEC maintained that some questionable entries circulating on social media dated from earlier registration exercises, including those conducted in 2011, and were not necessarily linked to the latest exercise.
The protest also renewed scrutiny of the commission’s independence following the decision by Amupitan’s predecessor, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, to accept a diplomatic appointment after leaving office. Yakubu was among 32 ambassadorial nominees forwarded to the Senate by Tinubu in November 2025 and was later designated Nigeria’s non-career ambassador to Qatar.
Asked about the possibility of accepting a political or diplomatic appointment after his tenure, Amupitan said he would decline any such offer, saying it could undermine public confidence in his neutrality.
“I’m not going to accept any appointment from anybody because coming to serve here is based on trust,” he said during the Chatham House discussion.
Amupitan said his role as INEC chairman required him to demonstrate impartiality. He also said the commission was introducing additional technical safeguards to prevent inaccurate results from being uploaded to its Result Viewing Portal during the 2027 elections.
The measures, he said, were part of efforts to strengthen the credibility of the electoral process and address concerns about electronic transmission and the publication of polling-unit results.
Political stakeholders and civil society groups have continued to call for greater transparency and accountability from INEC ahead of the 2027 general elections.
