2027: ‘Era Of Ballot Box Snatching, Manually Rewriting Results Is Gone’ – Amupitan Declares

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Joash Ojo Amupitan, has assured Nigerians that adequate measures have been put in place to prevent ballot box snatching and manual manipulation of election results in the 2027 election.

According to him, INEC has implemented robust technological and legal safeguards to ensure the votes of Nigerians count.

Naija News reports that Amupitan made the declaration on Wednesday in Abuja when he received the Director General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, on a courtesy visit to INEC headquarters.

During their discussions, the two men agreed to deepen collaboration on voter education ahead of the 2027 polls.

The INEC chairman said the commission must begin intensive civic engagement immediately, warning that voter apathy and disinformation remain dangerous threats to the integrity of the electoral process.

He said, “We need to teach them why their vote matters and how our new legal and technological safeguards protect their choices. We must look the rural farmer, the marketplace woman, and the disillusioned urban youth in the eye and explain to them, in the language they understand, that because of the current technological infrastructure, the era of snatching ballot boxes or rewriting results manually is gone.”

Reflecting on the February 21 Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council elections and the June 20 off-cycle Governorship election in Ekiti State, Amupitan said both polls exposed a troubling undercurrent of voter apathy and widespread confusion among urban voters over polling unit splits and registration transfers.

“This is a clear indicator that while our technology is moving forward, civic familiarity with the evolving system is lagging. It is a loud diagnostic signal that far more needs to be done in the area of intensive, deep-rooted voter education, and it proves that we cannot afford to wait until the eve of the 2027 polls to start talking to our people,” he said.

The INEC Chairman stressed that INEC cannot build a robust democracy in isolation, noting that advanced technology alone means nothing without an informed electorate.

He said, “We can purchase the finest BVAS machines, we can optimise the IReV to international standards, and we can map out the most logistical routes for material deployment. But all of these technological and administrative triumphs mean nothing if the citizens remain detached, cynical, or completely uneducated about the power of their votes.”

Amupitan emphasised the need for collaboration with NOA to educate Nigerians about democratic culture, creating a grassroots voter education campaign that goes beyond telling people when to vote.

“Together, INEC and the NOA must rewrite this narrative. We need to co-create a decentralised, grassroots voter education campaign that goes beyond simply telling people when to vote,” Amupitan said.

He pledged the commission’s full institutional support for the partnership. “Our doors are wide open. We are ready to pool our resources, share our data, and give your teams all the institutional support required to make this collaboration a resounding success,” he said.

Earlier, Issa-Onilu stressed the necessity of collaborating with INEC, lamenting that the number of voters who come out on election days is dangerously low when compared to the number of registered voters.

“We are going into communities with our advocacy to the people.

“We both have in our hands civic education and voter education. We humbly seek support from INEC, which we are already having, but we believe it can be better. We need to increase the number of people who come out to vote. Those who come out to vote are very low compared to those on the register. We need to even let them know everything beyond the elections to ensure that Nigerians can keep track of cases in court,” he said.