‘Don’t Trust INEC Tech,’ Yesufu Warns Nigerians

Human rights activist Aisha Yesufu has urged Nigerians to take personal responsibility for protecting their votes in the 2027 general election, warning citizens not to rely solely on technology deployed by the Independent National Electoral Commission

Yesufu made the call on Thursday in a post on her official X account, where she expressed doubts about the reliability of INEC’s technological systems and urged voters to closely monitor the electoral process from polling units through to the final collation of results in Abuja.

“The technology of INEC cannot be trusted! We will consider everything manual and analogue,” she said.

She urged Nigerians to remain vigilant during the counting of votes and the recording of results at polling units, stressing that citizens should personally observe how their votes are counted and entered.

“We must watch eagle-eyed the counting of our votes on Election Day. Watch like hawks as they write the results,” Yesufu said.

The activist also called for result sheets to be closely monitored as they move through the various stages of collation — from polling units to ward, local government and state collation centres, before eventually reaching Abuja.

“Follow our result sheets from polling unit to ward, LG, State collation centres and finally to Abuja,” she said.

According to Yesufu, neither electoral officials nor result sheets should be allowed to leave the public’s sight throughout the process.

She said the objective should be to ensure that the final results announced by electoral authorities accurately reflect the votes cast by Nigerians.

“At the end we will all gather in Abuja and ensure that what the people voted is what is announced,” she said.

Yesufu’s comments come amid continuing debate over the reliability of electronic systems in Nigeria’s electoral process and calls for greater transparency in the transmission and collation of election results.

Ahead of the 2027 elections, she has increasingly advocated a grassroots approach to vote protection, urging voters and supporters to organise at polling-unit level and remain present throughout the recording and collation of results.