The Independent National Electoral Commission has entered the final 100-day countdown to the 2027 general election with a warning to political parties, candidates and the media against declaring results outside the commission’s statutory authority.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, gave the warning on Tuesday in Abuja while unveiling the commission’s level of preparedness for the elections.
Amupitan said the commission would deploy technology, including 57,000 new BVAS devices and artificial intelligence tools, to strengthen voter accreditation, results verification and election security.
He also disclosed that Nigeria’s voter register had risen to 103.43 million, following the registration of 10.77 million new voters through three phases of the Continuous Voter Registration exercise.
The INEC chairman said the register would be displayed nationwide from October 9 to 15, allowing Nigerians to scrutinise the details and raise claims or objections.
Lagos tops the register with 7.49 million voters, followed by Kano with 6.57 million and Kaduna with 4.66 million.
Beyond the numbers, Amupitan said INEC was preparing for one of the country’s biggest peacetime logistical operations, with plans to mobilise more than 100,000 vehicles and 4,000 boats for the movement of personnel and election materials.
He said sensitive materials would be moved from Central Bank of Nigeria vaults to local government areas 72 hours before the polls, with materials expected to reach Registration Area Centres by 4pm on the eve of election day.
On technology, the commission is introducing upgraded BVAS devices, enhanced electronic result transmission and AI-supported anomaly detection.
Amupitan said INEC’s AI Division would operate under a framework of mandatory human oversight while helping to detect unusual activities and protect the commission’s digital platforms.
He also announced a nationwide mock accreditation exercise in November to test the readiness of personnel, equipment and network infrastructure before the election.
But the INEC chairman reserved some of his strongest words for the growing threat of misinformation and unofficial election results.
He urged journalists to verify election-related claims with INEC and warned against publishing privately collated results.
According to him, the media must resist the temptation to be first at the expense of accuracy.
“In national elections, it is far more important to be right than to be first,” he said.
Amupitan disclosed that 18 of the 22 registered political parties submitted presidential and vice-presidential candidates, while 21 parties fielded candidates for the National Assembly elections.
A total of 1,313 Senate candidates and 3,547 House of Representatives candidates were nominated, alongside 936 governorship/deputy governorship candidates and 9,692 State Assembly candidates.
The presidential and National Assembly elections are scheduled for January 16, 2027, while the governorship and State Assembly elections will follow on February 6.
Amupitan said the commission had now moved from planning into execution, with procurement, voter registration, technology deployment, logistics, personnel training and security preparations already underway.