The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Joash Ojo Amupitan, has declared that the era of electorates snatching ballot boxes or changing results are over.

Amupitan informed Nigerians that the technology used now is strong enough to make sure every vote in the 2027 general elections is protected.

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.

The INEC head remembered that the presidential election is on January 16 and the governor elections on February 6, 2027.He said the commission needs to start serious efforts to involve the public right away.

He also warned that people not caring about voting and false information are big risks to the fairness of the election process.

The INEC Chairman said, “We need to explain to them why their vote is important and how our new laws and technology help keep their choices safe.

“We need to meet the rural farmer, the marketplace seller, and the discouraged city youth straight on and tell them, in a way they can understand, that because of the existing technology, the time when people could take over ballot boxes or change results by hand is over.

“This shows that even though our technology is getting better, people are not keeping up with how the system is changing. He said,

“This is a clear sign that there is a lot more work to do in educating voters deeply and thoroughly, and it shows we can’t wait until right before the 2027 elections to start engaging with our people.”

Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Navy, Hon. Yusuf Gagdi, has explained why the former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and presidential candidate of the Nigerian Democratic Congress, Peter Obi, lack the required political capacity to defeat President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 presidential election.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today, Gagdi, who said the ruling All Progressives Congress noted that the APC is far ahead of the opposition in political mobilisation, insisted that he had seen nothing to suggest that either Atiku or Obi was preparing effectively to unseat the president.

“I have never, in my political imagination, thought that my party, APC, would lose an election,” he said.

According to him, “What are the opposition doing? What are the opposition planning or doing? I have not seen, with the activities of the opposition, those you mentioned, Peter Obi or Atiku. I have not seen any effort being put in place by them to unseat or defeat the president come 2027. I would say this any day, anytime.”

Gagdi argued that the APC had maintained sustained political activities across the country, unlike opposition parties.

“You have seen APC’s activities in the last one year across Nigeria, in the four corners of Nigeria where our political activities are ten times the political activities of any opposition political party in Nigeria,” he said.

“So who is supposed to talk to another person about planning to win an election?”

The Plateau lawmaker dismissed suggestions that only opposition politicians were strategising ahead of the next general election.

“You think Bola Tinubu and the APC are not trying to win elections in 2027? Atiku and Obi have always been defeated,” he stated.

Gagdi maintained that political parties naturally prepare for elections, saying it would be wrong to suggest that only opposition politicians were planning for 2027.

“If you think they are planning, what makes you think that the APC is not planning to win elections? Are we sleeping? What planning are they doing?” he asked.

The lawmaker also accused some opposition figures of exploiting the country’s security challenges for political advantage instead of offering practical solutions.

“From the tune of some people that are supposed to be leaders of this country when they are talking about what Nigerians are passing through, you will see it from them that they seem to appreciate the situation Nigeria is going through.”

“Instead of lamenting and proffering solutions, you lament and tie it to the fact that government is defective in solving that problem just to achieve some political gain

DAILY POST reports that the African Democratic Congress and NDC have all confirmed that Atiku’s and Peter Obi’s credentials have been uploaded on the INEC portal ahead of the 2027 general elections. This means Tinubu, Atiku, and Peter Obi will have to slug it out in the 2027 election. 

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, is set to introduce “downloadable Permanent Voter Cards, PVCs” for voters who have misplaced or defaced their original cards.

The INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, disclosed this when he received the Director-General of National Orientation Agency, NOA, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, who paid a courtesy visit to the commission’s headquarters in Abuja on Wednesday

Amupitan explained that the new technology was part of ongoing efforts to modernise Nigeria’s electoral processes ahead of the 2027 general elections.

According to him, the downloadable PVC option will not be automatic or open to firm-time registrants who have never collected a physical card.

“It is not every PVC that is downloadable. You must have gotten your PVC before and it must be that the PVC is lost, defaced or if you cannot read your numbers there,” he stated.

He further stated that affected voters must formally lodge a complaint at least 90 days before an election to enable the commission to process the replacement.

Amupitan said that the commission would pilot the downloadable PVC technology during the off-cycle Osun governorship election in August.

He also disclosed that INEC was finalising work on a technology that would allow eligible citizens to complete their voter registration entirely online without visiting INEC offices for physical biometric capture.

“We have also been working on the technology that is going to make it possible for the registration of voters online without even having to visit INEC local government or registration areas.

“So hopefully in the next few days, we will be testing it as soon as the commission approves it,” he said.

Amupitan said that those advancements were aimed at eliminating the feeling of disenfranchisement among citizens and ensuring that everyone who desired to register could do so seamlessly.