2027: INEC Chairman Says Adequate Funding Critical To Election Security

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Joash Amupitan, has said adequate funding is critical to providing the security and logistics required for the successful conduct of the 2027 general elections.

Amupitan stated this on Wednesday in Owerri, Imo State, while delivering a goodwill message at the sixth edition of the Conference and Retreat for Senior Police Officers, themed, “Developing a Nigeria Police Roadmap for Effective Management of Security During Elections.”

The INEC chairman said the scale of the Commission’s responsibilities required sustained financial support, noting that INEC conducts presidential, National Assembly, governorship and State House of Assembly elections, in addition to voter registration and political party registration.

He said the Commission’s constitutional status as a first-line charge on the Consolidated Revenue Fund did not remove the need for adequate and timely funding to meet the operational demands of elections.

“Sometimes, it is not what you would like to do that you are able to do because of financial constraints,” Amupitan said, adding that government agencies, including INEC and the police, could only operate within the resources made available to them.

He stressed that election security and logistics were closely interconnected, particularly given the need to deploy personnel and electoral materials across local government areas, wards, registration areas and polling units.

According to him, even where security agencies successfully maintain peace, inadequate logistics could still affect the effective conduct of elections.

Amupitan also identified voter registration as a foundation of credible elections, warning that an inaccurate or outdated voters’ register could undermine the inclusiveness of the electoral process. INEC has previously said it plans a nationwide voter revalidation exercise ahead of the 2027 elections.

He said the Commission had made security and logistics priorities under his leadership and was working with government and security agencies to address operational challenges ahead of the 2027 polls.

The INEC chairman highlighted the role of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES), describing it as an important platform for coordinating election security among INEC, the police and other relevant government and security agencies.

He explained that ICCES operates at federal, state and local government levels, with the Inspector-General of Police participating at the national level, commissioners of police at the state level and divisional police leadership represented at the local level.

Amupitan said stronger inter-agency coordination would be necessary ahead of 2027, stressing that the police remained the lead agency for election security.

He also referred to recent off-cycle elections as evidence of the importance of adequate security coordination and said lessons from those elections should inform preparations for the 2027 general elections, particularly in intelligence gathering, logistics and inter-agency cooperation.

The chairman said Nigerians expected an effective electoral system but should also recognise that achieving such standards required adequate resources.

“In Nigeria, we want the best. We want our electoral system to be 100 per cent. But sometimes we don’t ask ourselves the question: if we want the nation to be perfect, there must be a cost for it,” he said.

Amupitan therefore urged relevant authorities to provide the resources required by INEC and security agencies to discharge their respective responsibilities effectively.

Reaffirming the Commission’s commitment to operational synergy through ICCES, he expressed optimism that the Owerri retreat would produce an actionable roadmap for election security ahead of the 2027 general elections.

He also charged senior police officers to maintain professional neutrality, strengthen intelligence gathering and deepen inter-agency coordination to protect the integrity of the electoral process.

The INEC chairman has similarly stressed in previous engagements that election security requires early planning, intelligence gathering and coordination among security agencies as the country moves towards 2027.

The President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, also called on the leadership and operational personnel of the Nigeria Police Force to provide the necessary support and synergy to INEC in fulfilling its electoral mandate.

Badejo-Okusanya said effective policing support was important to protecting voters, electoral personnel and the wider electoral process and to facilitating the conduct of free, fair, credible and transparent elections.

The conference and retreat is expected to contribute to ongoing efforts to strengthen Nigeria’s election security architecture ahead of the 2027 general elections.