{"id":4556,"date":"2026-09-24T16:35:45","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T16:35:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/?p=4556"},"modified":"2026-09-24T18:44:28","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T18:44:28","slug":"2027-election-security-is-determined-by-adequate-funding-inec-chair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/?p=4556","title":{"rendered":"2027: Election security is determined by adequate funding &#8211;INEC Chair"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>*<strong><em>Prof. Joash O. Amupitan, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, emphasises the importance of adequate funding of elections to provision of requisite security and logistics required for successful conduct of 2027 General Elections in Nigeria <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect<\/p>\n<p>Prof. Joash O. Amupitan, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has said adequate funding of elections is critical to providing the security and logistics required for successful conduct of the 2027 General Elections.<\/p>\n<p>Amupitan stated this Wednesday, in Owerri, Imo State capital, while delivering a goodwill message at the sixth edition of the Conference and Retreat for Senior Police Officers.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"5Uq8c0osrx\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/?p=4515\">InFocus: UN Security Council and Big Techs&#8217; concerns about risks of &#8216;uncontrollable AI&#8217;<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"\u201cInFocus: UN Security Council and Big Techs\u2019 concerns about risks of \u2018uncontrollable AI\u2019\u201d \u2014 Consumer Experience Is A Top Priority\" src=\"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/?p=4515&amp;embed=true#?secret=1iUpICCzhU#?secret=5Uq8c0osrx\" data-secret=\"5Uq8c0osrx\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The conference had the theme: \u201cDeveloping a Nigeria Police Roadmap for Effective Management of Security During Elections&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Amupitan was accompanied by National Commissioners Dr. Ken Nnamdi Ukeagu and Rear Admiral Jamila Abubakar Malaga (Retd.), OFR, mni; the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Imo State, Chukwuemeka C. Ibeziakor, Esq.; and the Chief Press Secretary\/Media Adviser to the Chairman, Mr. Adedayo Oketola.<\/p>\n<p>Also on the entourage were Mustapha Muhammad Dogondaji, Personal Assistant; Ahmad Yusuf, Executive Assistant (Finance); and Barr. Ezeh N. Emmanuel, Head of Legal, INEC Imo State.<\/p>\n<p>Amupitan said although the Commission&#8217;s funding was constitutionally provided as a first-line charge on the Consolidated Revenue Fund, the scale of its responsibilities required sustained financial support to enable it to conduct elections effectively.<\/p>\n<p>The Chairman of INEC also explained that the Commission is responsible not only for Presidential and National Assembly (NASS) elections, but also for Governorship and State House of Assembly elections, voter registration, and the registration of political parties in the country.<\/p>\n<p>He further affirmed that the Commission has statutory powers to request the deployment of security agencies for elections and voter registration, making security an integral part of the electoral process.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Adedayo Oketola, Chief Press Secretary\/ Media Adviser to Prof. Amupitan, Wednesday, in a statement quoted the INEC Chairman said: \u201cSometimes, it is not what you would like to do that you are able to do because of financial constraints.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The system does make allocations of what is available and what is affordable at a particular time for the expenses and appropriation of the agencies, including the police and also including INEC.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He emphasised that voter registration remained the foundation of credible elections.<\/p>\n<p>According to him, an inaccurate or outdated voters&#8217; register could undermine the inclusiveness of the electoral process.<\/p>\n<p>Amupitan argued that because INEC conducts elections affecting the three tiers of government, election expenditure, including security-related costs, should be approached as a collective national responsibility.<\/p>\n<p>The Chairman said adequate funding was particularly important for the deployment of personnel and electoral materials to local government areas, wards, registration areas and polling units.<\/p>\n<p>Even where security agencies succeed in maintaining peace, inadequate logistics could still undermine the conduct of an election, stated he.<\/p>\n<p>The Chairman of the Commission further said the electoral body had made both security and logistical priorities under his leadership.<\/p>\n<p>Amupitan said the Commission was working with government and security agencies to ensure that operational challenges did not undermine the 2027 polls.<\/p>\n<p>He also highlighted the role of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES).<\/p>\n<p>The INEC Chief described it as a platform that brings the Commission relevant security and government agencies together to coordinate election security.<\/p>\n<p>The Committee, which began as a coordinating arrangement after the 2011 General Elections, following concerns over post-election violence, had evolved into a structured mechanism for election security coordination, he said.<\/p>\n<p>According to him, ICCES now 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.<\/p>\n<p>The INEC chairman said stronger coordination among the agencies would be necessary ahead of 2027, noting that the police remained the lead agency when it came to election security.<\/p>\n<p>Amupitan cited recent off-cycle elections as evidence of the importance of adequate security and coordination, recalling that security agencies had helped to resolve incidents that could otherwise have disrupted the electoral process.<\/p>\n<p>He further said the experience of recent elections should be used to strengthen preparations for the 2027 General Elections, particularly in intelligence gathering, logistics, and inter-agency coordination.<\/p>\n<p>Nigerians, he stated, expected a highly effective electoral system but must also recognise that achieving such standards required adequate resources.<\/p>\n<p>The Chairman explained: \u201cIn Nigeria, we want the best. We want our electoral system to be 100 percent.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But sometimes we don&#8217;t ask ourselves the question: if we want the nation to be perfect, there must be a cost for it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He urged the relevant authorities to provide the resources required by security agencies and INEC to perform their respective responsibilities effectively.<\/p>\n<p>Reaffirming the Commission\u2019s commitment to deepening operational synergy through ICCES, the Chairman expressed optimism that the Owerri retreat would produce an actionable, forward-looking roadmap ahead of the 2027 General Elections.<\/p>\n<p>He charged senior Police managers to sustain absolute professional neutrality, proactive intelligence gathering, and seamless inter-agency coordination to continuously protect the integrity of the ballot.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at the event, Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), charged the leadership and operational personnel of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) to extend their unalloyed support and synergy to the INEC Chairman in fulfilling his mandate.<\/p>\n<p>Badejo-Okusanya emphasised that robust policing support remains vital to safeguarding the electoral process and guaranteeing the delivery of free, fair, credible, and transparent elections across the nation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>*Prof. Joash O. Amupitan, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, emphasises the importance of adequate funding of elections to provision of requisite security and&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4581,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"Prof. Joash O. Amupitan, Chairman of INEC (4th left), and Top Security Officials at the Conference and Retreat for Senior Police Officers, in Owerri, Imo State, South-East Nigeria          Photo: INEC","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","_customify_content_layout":"","_customify_sidebar":"","_customify_page_header_display":"default","_customify_disable_header":"","_customify_disable_header_top":"","_customify_disable_header_main":"","_customify_disable_header_bottom":"","_customify_disable_page_title":"","_customify_disable_content_vertical_padding":"","_customify_disable_footer_top":"","_customify_disable_footer_main":"","_customify_disable_footer_bottom":"","_customify_breadcrumb_display":"","_customify_header_transparent_display":"default","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,3,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-highlights","category-infoeducation","category-regulators"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/INEC-on-Election-Security-cc.png",672,365,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/INEC-on-Election-Security-cc-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/INEC-on-Election-Security-cc-300x163.png",300,163,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/INEC-on-Election-Security-cc.png",672,365,false],"large":["https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/INEC-on-Election-Security-cc.png",672,365,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/INEC-on-Election-Security-cc.png",672,365,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/INEC-on-Election-Security-cc.png",672,365,false]},"author_info":{"info":["ConsumerConnect"]},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/?cat=20\" rel=\"category\">Highlights<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/?cat=3\" rel=\"category\">InfoEducation<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/?cat=8\" rel=\"category\">Regulators<\/a>","tag_info":"Regulators","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4556"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4556\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4599,"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4556\/revisions\/4599"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/consumerconnectng.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}