With less than two years to Nigeria’s 2027 general elections, anxiety is growing over the integrity of the process following revelations of alleged schemes to compromise the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Multiple insiders have raised the alarm over what they described as “systematic infiltration” of the electoral body, warning that without urgent intervention by the National Council of State (NCoS), civil society groups, and international observers, the coming polls risk becoming the most discredited in the nation’s history.
Alleged Parallel Result Sheets and IReV Breach
At the heart of the alleged manipulation plot is a plan to print duplicate sets of original result sheets, Forms EC8A[Polling unit], EC8B[ward], and EC8C[local government], with one version displayed at polling stations and another secretly kept for strategic allocation of votes.”
This strategy is to “directly compromise transparency, manipulation of data uploaded to the INEC IReV,”.
“This is to allow for discrepancies between what was physically recorded and what was transmitted electronically, thus creating structural vulnerabilities in the electoral process.”
Sources also disclosed fears that INEC’s Results Viewing Portal (IReV) and the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), both introduced to boost transparency, have been stress-tested in ways that could make them vulnerable to compromise.
Evidence cited from off-cycle elections in Kogi (2023), Edo (2024), and Ondo (2024) included instances where pre-recorded results allegedly appeared on IReV before polling had closed. In some locations, accredited voter counts reportedly fell short of the figures eventually declared, raising red flags among domestic observers.
Questionable Voter Registration Practices
Concerns are not limited to result management. Ongoing voter registration has also come under scrutiny. Investigations suggest that newly created polling units with artificially low populations are being used to accommodate partisan supporters, while re-registration and transfer restrictions have left many citizens disenfranchised.
INEC has not engaged in massive publicity to enlighten Nigerians about the categories of citizens who should register under this current exercise.
Despite INEC’s guidelines stating that only new voters who turned 18 since the last exercise or those never registered should participate, field reports suggest widespread inflation of registration numbers with the active collusion of electoral officers and Local Government Chairmen.
This trend was underscored in Anambra State, where INEC recently announced it had detected nearly 28,000 multiple registrations during the Continuous Voter Registration exercise — even as it added over 146,000 new voters to the state’s roll.
Search for Yakubu’s Successor
Another flashpoint is the looming exit of INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, whose second and final term ends in November. While President Bola Tinubu is yet to make his choice public, political actors are reportedly lobbying for the appointment of a “pliant” replacement. Some of the names being floated are former commissioners and Resident Electoral Commissioners with chequered records.
Observers warn that the wrong appointment could deepen mistrust in the electoral body, recalling the controversial transition in 2015 when former President Muhammadu Buhari bypassed seniority rules to appoint a family relation, Mrs. Amina Zakari, as acting chairman after Professor Attahiru Jega stepped down.
That move generated public uproar and cast early doubts on the administration’s commitment to credible elections.
Constitutional Safeguards Ignored
Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution clearly stipulates that appointments to INEC — including the chairman, national commissioners, and RECs — must be made by the president, confirmed by the Senate, and conducted in consultation with the National Council of State.
However, successive governments have bypassed this constitutional safeguard. Rights groups such as SERAP have already accused the Tinubu administration of flouting the law by appointing individuals with partisan affiliations into INEC without the mandatory consultation.
Analysts warn that this erosion of procedure could delegitimize the commission itself and weaken public confidence ahead of the 2027 polls. The parallels with the discredited 2003 and 2007 elections, which even the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua admitted were flawed, remain fresh in the public memory.
Labour Party, PDP Raise Alarm
Opposition parties have also mounted concerns accusing political actors of scheming to compromise both the Labour Party (LP) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The LP, through its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Tony Akeni, warned at the weekend that powerful interests were making moves to hijack the party’s internal structure by planting moles in the forthcoming congresses. According to him, reports from across the country suggest attempts to infiltrate ward, local government, state, zonal and national structures with the ultimate aim of destabilising the party.
“We have been made aware of a heinous plot to derail our forthcoming congresses,” Akeni said. “What Nigerians are witnessing in INEC today reflects the danger our democracy faces. The manipulation observed in the last by-elections and the ongoing voter registration exercise is alarming. We cannot afford a return to the days when strange names like Mike Tyson and Michael Jackson appeared on our voters’ register.”
He urged Nigerians to remain vigilant, insisting that “eternal vigilance is the price of democracy.” Akeni also expressed worry over the forthcoming leadership change in INEC, noting that the tenure of the current Chairman would lapse later this year. He said the next appointee must be incorruptible, fair-minded, and courageous enough to resist political pressure.
In a similar tone, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has alleged that the 2027 polls risk becoming a charade unless urgent reforms are implemented in INEC. A member of the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC), Timothy Osadolor, said recent developments already point to manipulation.
“It does not take rocket science to see that 2027 may be a complete waste of time and resources unless very deep reforms are carried out in INEC,” Osadolor told Sunday Vanguard. He accused politicians of infiltrating the electoral body to tamper with result sheets and inflate voter registration figures.
Citing examples, Osadolor questioned how Osun State could record more than 393,000 new voters during the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) while more populous states like Kano, Sokoto and Borno posted fewer numbers. He described the figures as “suspicious” and an indication of “plans to manufacture results before the first ballot is cast.”
The PDP chieftain further alleged that intense lobbying was underway by individuals of “dubious character” to replace the outgoing INEC boss, warning that such a development would further weaken the commission’s independence.
Osadolor also pointed to alleged irregularities in recent polls across Rivers, Zamfara, Adamawa and Edo States, where, according to him, security agencies and electoral officers “outnumbered voters” in some constituencies, turning polling centres into “war zones.”
He described the last Edo governorship election as a “case study in electoral violations,” insisting that the credibility of the electoral process had been deeply eroded.
The Stakes Ahead
With Nigeria’s voter turnout already at record lows — only 26.7% in 2023 — the credibility of INEC and the transparency of its operations will prove decisive for the survival of the country’s democracy. Civil society organisations, the international community, and the NCoS are therefore being urged to play an active role in safeguarding the process before it is too late.
