Nigerians protesting alleged irregularities in the voters’ register for the 2027 general elections on Thursday blocked the vehicle conveying the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Joash Amupitan, in London and demanded his resignation.
The protesters surrounded his vehicle outside Chatham House, where he was scheduled to speak at a discussion on Nigeria’s preparations for the 2027 elections.
The demonstrators, believed to be Nigerians in the Diaspora, accused INEC of compromising its independence and favouring President Bola Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress.
They described the commission as a “criminal organisation” and cited alleged duplicate voter registrations, artificial intelligence-generated photographs and questionable polling units in the preliminary voters’ register.
The protest followed growing criticism of INEC over images and records circulating on social media, purportedly showing suspicious entries in the voters’ register, including photographs suspected to have been generated or manipulated using artificial intelligence.
The controversy intensified after the commission acknowledged irregularities in the registration process and announced investigations into the affected records.
On November 9, Amupitan disclosed that INEC had removed 1,608,660 invalid registrations following a review of the 2025/2026 Continuous Voter Registration exercise.
The commission also removed 873 records belonging to verified deceased persons, bringing the total number of deleted records to 1,609,553.
Amupitan further revealed that 54 persons across 10 states had been identified as allegedly involved in registration irregularities and would face disciplinary action, including possible prosecution.
He said the infractions included suspected multiple registrations, substituted photographs and violations of established registration procedures.
INEC, however, maintained that some questionable entries circulating on social media originated from previous registration exercises dating back to 2011 and were not necessarily products of the latest exercise.
Meanwhile, the London protest also renewed questions about the independence of the electoral commission, particularly following the diplomatic appointment of Amupitan’s predecessor, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, after leaving office.
Yakubu was among 32 ambassadorial nominees forwarded to the Senate by Tinubu in November 2025 and was subsequently designated as Nigeria’s non-career ambassador to Qatar.
INEC staff are Nigeria’s least paid workers — Amupitan
Addressing concerns about the possibility of receiving a political or diplomatic appointment after his tenure, Amupitan pledged not to accept such offers, saying they could undermine public confidence in his neutrality.
“I’m not going to accept any appointment from anybody because coming to serve here is based on trust,” he said during the Chatham House discussion.
He maintained that his position required him to demonstrate impartiality in the discharge of his responsibilities.
The INEC chairman also disclosed that the commission was introducing additional technical safeguards to prevent inaccurate election results from being uploaded to its Result Viewing Portal during the 2027 elections.
He said the measures were part of efforts to strengthen the credibility of the electoral process and address concerns surrounding electronic transmission and publication of polling unit results.
The protest comes amid growing demands from political stakeholders and civil society organisations for greater transparency and accountability from INEC ahead of the 2027 general elections.
- NYSC seeks 5,000-capacity orientation camps in states as corps population surges - November 13, 2026
- Protesters demand Amupitan’s resignation outside Chatham House - November 13, 2026
- OPM pastor banishes man for 10 years over incest in Abia - November 13, 2026
