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The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has revealed that following the intelligence of the Department of State Services (DSS), it has identified potential risks to its ad hoc staff, especially members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).
Chairman of the Commission, Professor Joash Amupitan, SAN, stated this in Enugu, Enugu state, at the South-East zonal interactive meeting with staff and readiness assessment for the 2027 general election.
According to INEC’s latest bulletin, the people behind the plot had been arrested, and would be prosecuted soon.
“The Commission recently identified potential risks to its Ad Hoc staff, especially Youth Corps members, and has taken measures to neutralise the threat…
“Through the intelligence of the Department of State Services (DSS), the people behind the plot had been uncovered and arrested, and would be prosecuted soon,” Amupitan said.
The INEC boss added that the Commission planned to host a Security Conference “very soon” to address further issues relating to election security.
Professor Amupitan also directed that the Commission’s Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) records in the South-East be reviewed and every obstacle to the distribution of Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) in the zone removed ahead of the 2027 General Election.
He said this Tuesday in Enugu at the South-East Zonal Interactive Meeting on Staff and Readiness Assessment for the 2027 general election.
Amupitan also directed that the Commission’s Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) records in the South-East be reviewed and every obstacle to the distribution of Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) in the zone removed ahead of the 2027 general election.
He said the Commission’s “primary operational focus in the South-East is to review our local CVR records and dismantle every bottleneck affecting Permanent Voters Card (PVC) distribution.”
The INEC chair stressed that the Commission’s position on the matter was firm. “Our objective is uncompromising: no eligible citizen who registered should be disenfranchised by administrative or logistical friction,” he declared.
He noted that the National Register of Voters now stands at over 103 million registered citizens.
Amupitan recalled that, in line with Section 10 of the Electoral Act 2026, the Commission conducted three structured phases of the CVR exercise.
According to him, Phase I, which ran from 25th August 2025 to 10th December 2025, registered 2,611,266 voters, while Phase II held between 5th January 2026 and 17th April 2026, registered 4,121,835 voters.
He added that Phase III, conducted from 11th May 2026 to 26th July 2026, registered 3,867,997 voters.
The INEC chairman said the figures brought the total number of new registrants to 10,772,421 citizens, subject to final Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) deduplication verification at the National Headquarters.
He disclosed that in the third phase the Commission introduced, for the first time in Nigeria, the Online Registration Portal, a technology designed “to eliminate barriers of distance and time.”
The INEC chairman further said the Commission had activated Printable PVC technology in line with Section 18(1) of the Electoral Act 2026, adding that the innovation ensures that “waiting for months to pick up a voter’s card becomes a relic of the past.”
The Enugu engagement, which is the third in the Commission’s nationwide readiness assessment tour, followed the South-West edition in Lagos on 7th September 2026 and the North-West edition in Kaduna on 28th September 2026.
According to him, the visit was significant because no INEC chairman had visited the Enugu office since 1999.
He said that for over two decades, zonal preparations of such magnitude were coordinated through delegated structures or handled at the level of National Commissioners and headquarters directorates.
“Today, as we bring our nationwide tour to the South-East, we continue to break that tradition of remote governance,” he said.
The INEC chairman explained that he was in Enugu in person, because “the true success of any election is not decided solely in the meeting rooms of our headquarters in Abuja. It is decided in the field.”
He said the outcome of elections is determined across the 95 Local Government Areas of the South-East, in the Registration Area Centres (RACs) and at the polling units by Electoral Officers, Heads of Departments, technical leads and administrative staff.
Amupitan told participants that he had come to Enugu “to meet you directly, listen to your operational realities, and align our steps as we advance our collective march toward the 2027 General Election.”
He reminded the officials that the 2027 General Election would be “a simultaneous, national assignment across 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, involving over 103 million registered voters and 176,846 polling units.”
The INEC Chairman noted that the Presidential and National Assembly Elections are scheduled for Saturday, 16th January 2027, while the Governorship and State Houses of Assembly Elections will hold on Saturday, 6th February 2027.
“The statutory timeline is fixed, and the clock is ticking,” he said.
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