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Barring any corrective intervention from the National Council of State (NCoS), the international community, civil society organisations and potential election observers (both local and foreign), there are warning signals that the 2027 general elections may turn out to be the worst elections ever conducted in the history of Nigeria, based on verified pieces of information made available to Sunday Vanguard by usually dependable sources within the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
Part of the scheme, according to sources familiar with the alleged plots, will be the creation of dual original EC8 result forms, a practice reported to facilitate predetermined outcomes in strategically sensitive polling units, disparities between actual polling units’ results and posts on the INEC Results Viewing Portal, IReV, and manipulation of the ongoing registration exercise, among other things.
Printing of Identical Result Sheets and IReV Compromise
One of the sources said, “This plot involves producing identical Forms EC8A (polling unit), EC8B (ward), and EC8C (local government), one set for public presentation at polling units, and another set reserved for strategic allocation of votes.”
This strategy is to “directly compromise transparency, manipulation of data uploaded to the INEC IReV,” the source claimed.
Sunday Vanguard discovered that a breach of operational protocols is to allow for discrepancies between what was physically recorded and what was transmitted electronically, thus creating structural vulnerabilities in the electoral process.
On INEC’s technological systems, notably IReV and the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), which are designed to enhance transparency and public confidence, Sunday Vanguard was made to understand that “these platforms have been tested in ways exposing them to potential exploitation.”
According to the source, “during off-cycle gubernatorial elections in Kogi (November 2023), Ondo (November 2024) and Edo (September 2024), pre-prepared results were allegedly uploaded to IReV before the closure of polls.”
Civil society observers in Edo documented cases where the votes recorded exceeded the votes of accredited voters, an anomaly suggestive of irregularities.
In some cases, alternative “original” result sheets, allegedly prepared by aligned system operatives, were used to finalise outcomes.
Alleged Manipulation of Ongoing Registration
Beyond result management, voter registration procedures have raised additional concerns.
Sunday Vanguard discovered that newly created polling units often contain deliberately low voter populations, enabling the registration of partisan supporters while constraining participation by parties other than the one claiming the unit as a stronghold.
In addition, it was found that limitations on re-registration, replacement of lost PVCs and transfer procedures exacerbate the risks of systematic disenfranchisement.
The paradox is that INEC has not engaged in massive publicity to enlighten Nigerians about the categories of citizens who should register under this current exercise.
Only those who have attained the age of 18 years after the last exercise in 2022 and those who haven’t registered previously should participate in the ongoing exercise.
Those who have lost their PVC or have a transfer of place of voting shouldn’t register again, but approach INEC for correction.
The reverse is happening simultaneously across Nigeria, collaborating with electoral officers and local government chairmen, leading to stupendously outrageous registration inflation.
Already, INEC claimed it has uncovered 27, 817 multiple registrations from the just-concluded Continuous Voter Registration in Anambra State, despite adding 146,353 new voters to the state voter register.
The Commission disclosed this in a statement issued by its National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun, on Thursday in Abuja.
Olumekun said that INEC met on Thursday and, among other issues, deliberated on the final register of voters for the Nov. 8 Anambra governorship election.
In the 2023 general elections, over one million registrations were invalidated due to duplications or errors, coinciding with a turnout of only 26.72%, the worst since.
Shopping For ‘Suitable Replacement’ For Yakubu, Avoiding Buhari’s Mistake
The tenure of the INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, ends in November, by which time he would have served out his two terms.
As of the time of going to press, Sunday Vanguard investigations revealed that President Bola Tinubu had not boarded on any of the emerging plots to get a ‘suitable replacement’ for Yakubu.
One of the options being pursued by the alleged plotters is the nomination and confirmation of a ‘useful’ individual as Yakubu’s successor.
A number of names (withheld) are already being put forward for consideration.
Unfortunately, a few of the individuals who are being positioned had served as National Commissioners of the Commission, as well as Resident Electoral Commissioners, RECs, did not dress themselves in shining armour during their tenures.
Nigerians recall with nostalgia how the 2003 and 2007 general elections went, culminating in the public admission by a beneficiary of the 2007 sham presidential election, the late President Umar Musa Yar’Adua, that there were flaws.
Some 10 years and two months ago, on Tuesday, June 30, 2015, something very curious happened when President Muhammadu Buhari, who rode on the back of the vigor and determination of Nigerians to engage change, threw INEC into a cesspit of needless controversy, by not appointing a substantive National Chairman for INEC until the tenure of the largely reformative Professor Attahiru Jega ended.
cting in line with statutes and order of seniority, Jega had handed over to Ambassador (Dr.) Ahmed Wali to head and supervise the activities of the Commission until a substantive Chairman was appointed ”in consultation with the Council of State (NCoS)” – as provided by the Constitution.
However, within 24 hours, Buhari, who had just been sworn-in, barely 36 hours earlier, overruled Jega and appointed a familial, nay filial relation, Mrs Amina Bala Zakari, as acting head of INEC.
The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation at that time, Danladi Kifasi, who conveyed the appointment in a letter, said the appointment was with effect from June 30, 2015 and until the appointment of a substantive Chairman.
At that time, both Wali and Zakari were National Commissioners of INEC.
But in terms of seniority, Wali trumped Zakari.
Interestingly, Buhari, who had been declared winner of the presidential election of March 2015 and who ought to have been briefed by his transition team on appointments he needed to make immediately he assumed office, either had no clue about what was happening in INEC or had made up his mind to appoint a family member as INEC Chairman.
The furore Buhari’s misstep generated in the country at that time threw INEC under the bus.
It was not until Wednesday, October 21, 2015 – almost four months later – that Buhari appointed Yakubu as substantive INEC Chairman, after a series of lobbying and counter-lobbying to get ’suitable’ replacement for Jega.
