2027: ‘Presiding officer open to danger’ – Igini on consequences of controversial electoral act bill

By Jude Opara

A former Resident Electoral Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), Mike Igini, has warned that the controversial Electoral Act amendment bill could endanger the lives of presiding officers during the 2027 general elections.
Igini raised the concern yesterday while speaking on The Morning Show on Arise Television, monitored in Abuja.
According to him, the proposed changes could reintroduce a system similar to the former “Incident Form,” particularly in situations where election officials claim there is no network connectivity for electronic transmission of results.
He warned that such a scenario could create tension at polling units, especially where voters are able to confirm network availability on their mobile devices while a presiding officer insists otherwise.
Igini said this could expose presiding officers, many of whom are members of the National Youth Service Corps, to potential danger from aggrieved voters.
He noted that the children of political elites are not the ones deployed to polling units, but rather youth corps members who bear the brunt of election-day responsibilities.
The former commissioner also referenced past elections, alleging that there had been cases of collusion involving electoral officials, including incidents where serial numbers of election result sheets were compromised.
He questioned how authorities would determine authentic results in cases where duplicated serial numbers are uploaded to INEC’s Result Viewing Portal (iReV).
Igini said: “The consequence, the danger of what have been passed is that we are bringing back what they call “incident form”. This is another version of incident form because there will be no network.
“The danger of what is going to happen in 2027 are as follows – the polling units presiding over officers’ lives are going to be in danger. This is because when Nigerians are gathered and the results of polling units are being announced, everyone can look at their telephone and see network, but if the presiding officer says there is no network, you are going to put the life of that presiding officer in danger.
“Meanwhile, the children of all the political elites are not going to be at the polling unit. It’s the youth corps members that are going to be faced with this clear danger.
“You know that in 2015 and 2019 there were evidence of collusion of some of our staff, when they gave the serial number of ECA in certain polling units for people to print, where you will now have the same serial number and the essential feature. And where they are transmitted to the iReV, which one are you going to pick?”