•Vows arrests, sanctions for violence, hate speech, vote-buying •Sets to track illegal campaign spending•As voter register tops 103m, 57,000 new BVAS acquired, PVC collection begins Friday
ABUJA—The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has warned politicians that their ambitions were not worth the blood of Nigerians, vowing arrests, sanctions and prosecution against parties, candidates and agents who resort to violence, hate speech and vote-buying during the 2027 general election
INEC Chairman, Professor Joash Amupitan SAN, gave the warning at a strategic workshop for editors, organised by the Nigerian Guild of Editors, NGE, in collaboration with the commission, in Abuja yesterday
“As electioneering intensifies across the country, I must sound a clear note of warning to all political parties, candidates, and campaign managers: INEC will not stand by and allow political competition to devolve into violence, intimidation, or inflammatory rhetoric
“Democracy thrives on the clash of ideas, not the clash of weapons or the proliferation of hate speech,” he stated
Amupitan said the commission had put machinery in place to track offenders, adding that “through the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security, ICCES, we have activated an early-warning tracking framework to log incidents of political violence, thuggery and dangerous campaign rhetoric
“Any political party or candidate implicated in inciting violence, disrupting rivals’ rallies or deploying armed thugs will face direct statutory sanctions and swift prosecution No political office in this country is worth the blood of a single Nigerian.’’
Departing from his prepared speech, the chairman said he had just been shown evidence of the kind of conduct he was warning against
“Just before I was invited to come and speak, somebody shared with me… a person, an NDC candidate in Kano State who was campaigning yesterday with a gun in his hands, brandishing the gun, and so on and so forth
“Another person was threatening that with AK-47s, they will kill all of us in the commission So, that is what elections have turned into in Nigeria of today,” Amupitan lamented.
He appealed for restraint, saying “let us not forget our role as citizens of Nigeria to be patriotic because election is a periodic process for the election of leaders every four years”
On vote-buying, the chairman also announced a crackdown on money politics, stressing that the integrity of the ballot box was fatally compromised when a citizen’s vote was treated as a commodity for sale
“The commission is taking an uncompromising stance against vote-buying in all its forms ahead of the 2027 general election,” he said
He disclosed that the commission was working with the Federal Ministry of Justice, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit NFIU
On the voter register, Amupitan said Phase I of the Continuous Voter Registration, CVR, which ran from August 25, 2025, to December 10, 2025, registered 2,611,266 voters, while Phase II, from January 5 to April 17, 2026, registered 4,121,835
According to him, Phase III, from May 11 to July 26, 2026, registered 3,867,997, which together amount to over 106 million new registrants.
On technology, Amupitan said the commission had acquired 57,000 new Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, devices “for optimal performance”
He said the enhanced eEC8A system digitised polling unit result sheets, authenticated them cryptographically and uploaded them directly from polling units to the INEC Result Viewing Portal, IReV
Amupitan said Form eEC8A would halt manipulation of votes at the polling unit level before the figures were entered into the BVAS and transferred to IReV
Bulletproof vests, cars
He disclosed that at the commission’s North-West zonal engagement in Kaduna State, staff from Zamfara, Sokoto and other states asked for bulletproof vests and vehicles because of insecurity in parts of those states
He said the commission might secure bulletproof vehicles for staff in flashpoints, noting that the commission had completed physical readiness audits and staff engagements in the South-West and North-West zones, covering state office facilities, safe storage, security command protocols and logistics networks, adding that the other four geopolitical zones would follow
Speaking on the issue of staff welfare, he said the commission had “recently introduced the Consolidated Election Management Body Salary Structure, CEMBSS, accompanied by a 150% increase in state office operational overheads effective July 1, 2026 ‘’We are working on the cash backing to ensure immediate implementation,’’ he added.
In his remarks, NGE President, Mr Eze Anaba, said the partnership was timely as the country approached another round of elections
“Elections are not merely about casting ballots; they are about trust They are about citizens believing that their votes will count, that the process will be transparent and that the institutions responsible for conducting elections will act fairly and professionally,” he said.
Anaba said the media had a critical role in building and sustaining that trust, noting that “as editors, we determine, to a significant extent, what information reaches the public, how it is presented and the context in which it is understood With that responsibility comes an obligation to uphold accuracy, fairness, balance and the public interest,” he said.
He acknowledged that the media could carry the responsibility alone
“At the same time, we recognise that the media cannot perform this responsibility effectively without credible, timely and accessible information from the electoral management body,” he said
Anaba, who warned of the environment in which both sides operate, said: “In an environment increasingly polluted by misinformation, disinformation, manipulated content, deepfakes and partisan narratives, the relationship between INEC and the media must therefore be one founded on openness, mutual respect and regular engagement’’