— Describes state police as a “child of necessity”
— Governors promise speedy approval
— As Ekiti governor promises 700,000 votes for Tinubu, reaches out to opposition

By Johnbosco Agbakwuru

ABUJA — The Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, on Wednesday said the National Assembly is working to prevent governors from abusing state police.

The Ekiti State Governor, Abiodun Oyebanji, also promised that the state will deliver about 700,000 votes to President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 elections.

The two spoke to State House correspondents after meeting with President Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Fielding questions about fears that governors might use their position to abuse the state police, Senator Bamidele said mechanisms are being developed through a constitutional amendment to prevent or minimize any abuse.

On the concerns, he said: “There will always be fears and concerns, but whether the concerns are well-founded is another issue altogether, and we are not unmindful of them.

“They are legitimate concerns, but let me put it this way: even with the federal police, a governor who is the chief security officer in the state can still use the police in a way he deems possible, depending on how much the system allows manipulation.

“Most importantly, we are putting mechanisms in the law as we amend the constitution that would prevent or minimize instances of abuse by state governors.

“And as much as possible, I believe that not everything can go into the constitution, but what’s important at this point is that all the governors, or most of them, are on the same page with us.

“And that will be demonstrated by the speed with which the bill will receive concurrence in their state houses of assembly when we eventually transmit it. We all must know state police is a child of necessity.”

On opposition to the proposal, Senator Bamidele said it was no longer about political interests, adding, “All of us are on the same page that there’s a need for this.

“In the amendment to the Police Act that will follow, we will spell out more details — details that cannot possibly go into the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

Also speaking to journalists about the state’s disposition to the establishment of state police, Governor Oyebanji said the National Economic and Financial Council, comprising the 36 state governors, had met and that most governors had submitted their positions.

He said: “We are ready for state police, and we are grateful to the National Assembly for the constitutional amendments. We are waiting for them to be transmitted to the state houses of assembly.

“The governors have made up their minds that they will give it speedy approval so we can start implementing.”

The governor also spoke about his second-term victory in the recent gubernatorial election, attributing the win to the grace of God and the support of President Tinubu, which he said enabled him to deliver on his promises to the people.

“So these are the two factors that led to the result we saw two weeks ago,” he said.
Governor Oyebanji said he has reached out to the opposition candidates to build unity.

“I’m here with the chairman of the campaign council. The election ended when the winner was declared. I phoned the two other candidates and, with the chairman of the campaign council, we visited one of them and reached an understanding.

“Once I get back to Ekiti, I will visit the other one, and they’ve assured me of their cooperation, because the election and politics have ended and we must return to governance.

“I told them that I will need all of them — their wisdom, suggestions and advice — to ensure we continue to deliver to our people.”

On what he will do differently, the governor said: “I have my job cut out for me. We have a 30-year development plan that I’m following, and we will continue to implement it diligently.

“We are not going to do anything differently, because that 30-year development plan is the basis upon which our yearly budget is built and upon which the manifesto is crafted.”

Answering a question on the chances of the President winning the state in 2027, Governor Oyebanji said: “Well, it’s very bright. Let me paint a scenario: in 2022 when we first contested, we won with 187,000 votes; six months later, when the President ran, and I was a few months in office, we increased it to 210,000. This 2026 governorship election posted 318,000, so you can extrapolate and see that in 2027 a target of 600,000–700,000 is doable.”

By Omeiza Ajayi, Abuja

Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Joash Ojo Amupitan SAN, has declared that the era of ballot box snatching and manual manipulation of election results is gone, assuring Nigerians that current technological safeguards are robust enough to protect every vote cast in the 2027 general elections.

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.

Both institutions used the occasion to deepen collaboration on voter education ahead of the 2027 polls.

The INEC chairman, who recalled that the presidential election is held on January 16 and governorship polls on February 6, 2027, 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.”

While acknowledging significant operational achievements recorded during the February 21 Federal Capital Territory FCT Area Council elections and the June 20 off-cycle Governorship election in Ekiti State — including over 90 per cent early opening of polling units, biometric authentication via the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), and swift result uploads to the INEC Result Viewing Portal IReV — the chairman 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.

Amupitan 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.”

Describing the NOA as Nigeria’s premier organisation for civic orientation and the visit as “a vital meeting of minds”, the INEC boss said the two institutions share a constitutional responsibility to educate Nigerians on democratic culture and must co-create a decentralised, grassroots voter education campaign that goes beyond telling people when to vote.

He called for joint campaigns against vote-buying and misinformation and urged that NOA field officers be equipped with accurate technical knowledge of INEC’s operations so they can serve as trusted community ambassadors ahead of the elections.

“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, adding that the collaboration between both agencies is “not a secondary option; it is an absolute necessity.”

Welcoming the NOA DG’s leadership and his grasp of modern strategic communication, Amupitan said civic orientation in 2026 cannot rely on old, top-down bureaucratic methods, stressing that engagement must be digital, relational, and youth-focused.

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.

By Omeiza Ajayi, ABUJA

The National Working Committee NWC of the ruling All Progressives Congress APC has dropped former Benue State Governor Gabriel Suswam, former Ondo State House of Representatives member Gbenga Elegbeleye, and five other senatorial candidates from the party’s final lists of candidates forwarded to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

Read Also: APC retains Akpabio, 4 Govs for Senate race

The development was contained in a correspondence signed by both the APC National Chairman and National Secretary, Nentawe Yilwatda and Ajibola Basiru respectively, and transmitted to the electoral commission, with the party’s national leadership attributing the sweeping changes to the report of the Primary Election Appeal Committee.

Nineteen House of Representatives candidates who had emerged victorious in the party’s primary elections held in May were equally dropped and replaced in the final lists. The states affected include Kogi, Abia, Benue, Taraba, Ondo, Niger, Kwara, Kaduna and Ebonyi.

Titled “Forwarding of approved list of senatorial and House of Representatives candidates,” the letter read: “We write to formally forward the attached list of the party’s candidates for the affected senatorial and House of Representatives constituencies arising from the report of the Primary Election Appeal Committee. Following the determination of appeals from the recently concluded primary elections, the reports of the Appeal Committee were reviewed and subsequently considered and approved by the NWC of the APC as the party’s final position on the affected constituencies. In accordance with the Electoral Act 2022 (as amended) and INEC’s regulations and guidelines, we hereby transmit the enclosed list of the approved candidates for seven senatorial districts and 19 House of Representatives constituencies for your records and necessary action.”

Among the senatorial replacements, Senator Sunday Karimi displaced Aro Samuel Bamidele in Kogi West; Edinburgh Uchenna Erondu was replaced by Prince Paul Ikonne in Abia South; Suswam lost the Benue North East ticket to Emmanuel Memga Udende; while in Benue North West, Titus Tartenger Zam replaced Benjamin T. Aber.

Mohammed Kabir Bello was replaced by Shuibu Isa Lau in Taraba North; Taiwo Fasoranti was substituted by Adeniyi Adegbonmire in Ondo Central; and Elegbeleye lost the Ondo North ticket to Olajide Ipinsagba.

In the House of Representatives, Benue State recorded the most changes, with five federal constituencies affected. Dickson Tarkighir replaced Ikper Chris Terfa in Makurdi/Guma; Sesoo Ikpagher replaced Livinus Tsar Adzor in Vandeikya/Konshisha; Terser Ugbor substituted Kohol Shedrach Iornem in Kwande/Ushongo; Sekav Dzua Iyortyom replaced Gideon Inyom in Buruku; while Austin Asema Achado displaced Nongo David in Gwer East/Gwer West Federal Constituency.

In Taraba, Peter Abel Diah was forwarded to replace Sanusi Mohammed Galadima in Gashaka/Kurmi/Sardauna Federal Constituency. Niger State saw Abubakar Lado Abdullahi substitute Adamu Tanko in Suleja/Tafa/Gurara and Adamu Suleiman replacing Adamu Usman in Lavun/Edati/Mokwa.

In Kwara, Raheem Tunji Olawuyi replaced Olasumbo Florence Oyeyemi in Ekiti/Irepodun/Oke-Ero, while Mohammed Mamman substituted Bello Tauheed Abubakar in Edu/Patigi/Moro.

Ondo State recorded six House of Representatives changes, with Donald Ojogo replacing Akingboye Leke in Ilaje/Ese-Odo; Festus Olarewaju replacing Rasaq Obe in Idanre; Oluwatimehin Akintomide replacing Kayode Ijalana in Owo/Ose; Okunjinmi John Odimayo replacing Olumuyiwa Daramola in Okitipupa/Irele; Michel Olamidotun Akintomide substituting Abiola Makinde in Ondo West/Ondo East; and Festus Ayodele Adefiranye replacing Oyerinmade Matthew in Ile-Oluji/Oke-Igbo/Odigbo.

Rounding out the changes, Abdulazeez Kaka was named as replacement for Samaila Abdu Suleiman in Kaduna North; Samuel Okezie displaced Chris Nkwonta in Ukwa East/Ukwa West in Abia State; while Ekumankama Joseph Nkama replaced Iduma Igariwey Enwo in Afikpo North/Edda Federal Constituency in Ebonyi State.

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