By Lateef Ibrahim Abuja
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has received more than 4,800 claims and about 600 objections on the Preliminary Register of Voters, the Chairman of the Commission, Prof. Joash Amupitan, SAN, has said.
Prof. Amupitan disclosed this on Friday in Abuja while receiving the ECOWAS Pre-Election Fact-Finding Mission at the Commission’s National Headquarters.
Amupitan said the figures were as of Thursday, and that the claims, received at the registration areas where the register was displayed, were mostly corrections and other minor issues.
According to him, the objections were received from the various wards through electoral officers and Resident Electoral Commissioners.
“The display of the register online is also confirming some of the complaints we had earlier received,” he said.
The INEC Chairman said the Commission was working to ensure that all claims and objections were addressed before the Final Register of Voters is certified on 15 December 2026.
Prof. Amupitan said that given the size of the register, which now stands at over 103 million registered citizens, any discrepancies noticed during the display would be corrected so that the register is properly cleaned up ahead of the final release.
He announced that the Commission planned a nationwide mock accreditation exercise in November to test accreditation and result transmission simultaneously in all states.
The INEC Chairman said the Commission had also introduced a safeguard “whereby results are authenticated at the polling unit before it goes to IReV.” He explained that when he assumed office, the question was whether to bring in a different technology, but that was not an option given the timeline, so the Commission focused on improving the existing system.
On readiness, he said the Commission had visited the South-West in Lagos, the North-West in Kaduna, the South-East in Enugu and, earlier this week, the North-East in Gombe, with the North-Central zone to be visited next week.
He said the tours had already led to adjustments. “During our meeting earlier this week, we realised that there are some areas that we needed higher deployments than we had planned because of the terrain and some of the security issues that are prevalent,” he said.
Prof. Amupitan, who said he was sworn in on 23 October 2025, told the delegation that in his first year the Commission had conducted four main off-cycle elections and 16 by-elections.
He said the Anambra State governorship election, held two weeks after he assumed office, was concluded and announced within one day, compared with about five days in 2022. He said the lessons were applied in the FCT election in February, as well as in the Ekiti State governorship election in June and the Osun State governorship election on 8 August 2026.
“For us, every election provides its own lesson,” he said.
On staff welfare, he said the Commission had secured approval for the Consolidated Election Management Body Salary Structure (CEMBSS). “If our staff are well taken care of, then the temptation from the political group will be curtailed,” he said.
On security, he said the Commission’s experience in Osun State showed that its approach worked, as threats and violence recorded before the election subsided after the Commission refocused on security arrangements and the monitoring of volatile areas. “Post-election violence has drastically reduced,” he said.
He said the Commission was also perfecting plans for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) “to ensure inclusivity, that no one is completely excluded.”
Prof. Amupitan said INEC sought “a hand-on-hand relationship with the international community, providing peer learning and technical exchange regarding best practices in combating sophisticated electoral disinformation, managing logistics in complex terrains, and strengthening inclusive voters’ education.”
He said the Commission also welcomed “the robust deployment of long-term and short-term ECOWAS election observation missions, whose independent and objective assessment lends vital international credibility to our electoral and democratic process.”
The Chairman assured the delegation, and through it the Authority of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS, that “the Independent National Electoral Commission under my watch has no candidate and no political party.”
“We need to show clearly that we have come of age, Africa has come of age, and we are able to conduct our own affairs,” he said.
The Mission is led by a former Vice-President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, Victor Bockarie Foh. The Co-Head of Mission is Dr. Abbas Chernor Bundu, a former Executive Secretary of ECOWAS and former Speaker of the Parliament of Sierra Leone. The ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security, Ambassador Francess Piagie Alghali, was also present.
Speaking earlier, Mr. Foh said the Mission was deployed on the strength of the Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance, Article 53C of the ECOWAS Conflict Prevention Framework, and “the authority of heads of state decision to send pre-election fact-finding missions to member states holding elections.”
He said the Mission’s objectives were “to assess the state of preparedness for the effective conduct of the general elections, meet with leaders of political parties and coalitions, the government, the electoral management body, civil society, and all other stakeholders in the electoral process.”
Mr. Foh added that the Mission would “gather all legal texts that govern the 2027 electoral process in Nigeria” and collect information on the conditions under which the elections would be held.
Dr. Bundu said the Mission was deployed to “gauge the state of preparedness of all the stakeholders and to see where ECOWAS Commission can be of support to INEC and all stakeholders in the process.”
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