London protesters accuse INEC of bias, seek Amupitan’s resignation

Nigerian protesters in London on Thursday demanded the resignation of the Independent National Electoral Commission Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, accusing the electoral body of failing to protect its neutrality ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The demonstrators surrounded a vehicle conveying Amupitan outside Chatham House, where he was scheduled to speak at a discussion on Nigeria’s preparations for the elections.

The protesters, believed to be Nigerians living in the diaspora, reportedly hurled insults at the INEC chairman and accused the commission of favouring President Bola Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress.
They also described INEC as a “criminal organisation”, citing alleged duplicate voter registrations, questionable polling units and photographs suspected to have been generated or manipulated using artificial intelligence in the preliminary voters’ register.

The protest followed growing criticism of the commission over suspicious entries in the register, which circulated on social media and raised questions about the integrity of the Continuous Voter Registration exercise.
Amupitan had disclosed on November 9 that INEC removed 1,608,660 invalid registrations after reviewing the 2025/2026 registration exercise.

The commission also deleted 873 records belonging to verified deceased persons, bringing the total number of removed entries to 1,609,553.
The INEC chairman said 54 people across 10 states had been identified as allegedly involved in registration irregularities and could face disciplinary action, including prosecution.

The suspected offences included multiple registrations, substituted photographs and breaches of registration procedures.
However, INEC maintained that some questionable records circulating online originated from previous registration exercises dating back to 2011 and were not necessarily products of the latest exercise.

The demonstration also renewed questions about the independence of the electoral commission, particularly following the acceptance of a diplomatic appointment by Amupitan’s predecessor, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, after leaving office.
Yakubu was among 32 ambassadorial nominees submitted to the Senate by President Tinubu in November 2025 and was subsequently designated as Nigeria’s non-career ambassador to Qatar.

Amupitan, however, pledged during the Chatham House discussion that he would not accept a political or diplomatic appointment after his tenure, saying such a move could undermine public confidence in his leadership.
“I’m not going to accept any appointment from anybody because coming to serve here is based on trust,” he said.

He maintained that his responsibility was to ensure impartiality and strengthen public confidence in the electoral process.
The INEC chairman also said the commission was introducing technical safeguards to prevent inaccurate polling unit results from being uploaded to its Result Viewing Portal during the 2027 elections.