The Independent National Electoral Commission has reported completing nine statutory milestones on its revised timetable for the 2027 general elections, as it continues work on the voter register, logistics and security arrangements.
INEC Chairman, Professor Joash Amupitan, presented the update to an Economic Community of West African States pre-election fact-finding delegation at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja on Friday, 30 October.
Former Sierra Leonean Vice-President Victor Bockarie Foh led the mission, with Dr Abbas Chernor Bundu, a former ECOWAS Executive Secretary and former Speaker of Sierra Leone’s Parliament, serving as co-leader.
Amupitan said the completed activities included three phases of Continuous Voter Registration and the nationwide physical display of the Preliminary Register of Voters, according to TheCable’s account of the briefing.
He said the register now contained more than 103 million voters. INEC had also published the preliminary database on its dedicated portal, allowing Nigerians to examine entries and raise claims or objections before the commission certifies the final register on 15 December.
The verification process remains under way. In further details reported by Punch, Amupitan said INEC had received more than 4,800 claims and about 600 objections as of Thursday, 29 October.
Most claims concerned corrections and other minor issues, he said, adding that online scrutiny had helped identify discrepancies. He pledged that the commission would address valid submissions before final certification.
INEC’s official election calendar schedules the presidential and National Assembly polls for Saturday, 16 January 2027. Governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections will follow on Saturday, 6 February.
Amupitan said the nationwide exercise would require personnel and equipment across the 36 states and Federal Capital Territory, covering 774 local government areas, 8,809 registration areas and 176,846 polling units.
To assess those operational requirements, the commission had undertaken inspections across the geopolitical zones, examining facilities, infrastructure and arrangements for deploying electoral materials and personnel.
At Friday’s briefing, Amupitan said INEC had completed assessments in the South-West, North-West, South-East and North-East. He identified Port Harcourt, Rivers State, as the venue for the South-South leg.
The visits, he explained, enabled the commission’s leadership to hear directly from electoral officers, inspect facilities and consult traditional and community leaders about conditions that could affect election preparations.
Security planning formed another part of the briefing. Amupitan said INEC was coordinating with security agencies through the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security.
He described the committee’s ICCES Tentacle framework as an intelligence-led arrangement for identifying risks early and preparing responses before polling begins.
Its objectives, he said, included protecting polling locations and electoral personnel, particularly National Youth Service Corps members, while enabling voters, including persons with disabilities, to reach polling units without obstruction.
On accreditation, Amupitan said INEC would deploy the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System for fingerprint and facial biometric checks. He also outlined the role of the new eEC8A platform in verifying results, alongside the INEC Result Viewing Portal, through which the public could examine polling-unit returns.
The commission also planned a nationwide mock accreditation exercise in November to test accreditation and results transmission across the states, he said.
Amupitan separately announced approval for the Consolidated Election Management Body Salary Structure and a 150 per cent increase in operational overheads for INEC’s state offices.
He warned personnel against negligence, extortion and partisan behaviour, while assuring the delegation that the commission would maintain political neutrality.
Explaining the mission’s purpose, Foh said ECOWAS wanted to assess preparations and identify areas where it could assist INEC and other electoral stakeholders.
The delegation’s engagements would extend to political parties, government representatives, civil society organisations and security agencies to examine the wider electoral environment, PRNigeria reported.
Foh urged INEC to observe the required electoral procedures and involve relevant stakeholders throughout the process, saying both would influence the credibility of the elections.