Barely four months to the 2027 general elections, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC, Prof. Joash Amupitan SAN, has renewed calls for adequate funding of the commission, warning that the security and logistics required for a successful poll remain contingent on sustained financial support.
Chief Press Secretary and Media Adviser to the INEC Chairman, Adedayo Oketola in a statement on Wednesday said Amupitan spoke in Owerri, Imo State, where he delivered 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.”
Oketola disclosed that the INEC chairman was accompanied to the event by National Commissioners, Dr Ken Nnamdi Ukeagu and Rear Admiral Jamila Abubakar Malaga (retd), OFR, mni; the Resident Electoral Commissioner for Imo State, Chukwuemeka C. Ibeziakor, Esq.; as well as Mustapha Muhammad Dogondaji, Personal Assistant; Ahmad Yusuf, Executive Assistant (Finance); and Barr. Ezeh N. Emmanuel, Head of Legal, INEC Imo State.
Speaking at the retreat, Amupitan said although the commission’s funding was constitutionally provided as a first-line charge on the Consolidated Revenue Fund, the scale of its responsibilities required sustained financial backing to enable it deliver on its mandate.
He said; “Sometimes, it is not what you would like to do that you are able to do because of financial constraints. 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”.
Amupitan explained that INEC’s responsibilities went beyond Presidential and National Assembly elections to include Governorship and states House of Assembly elections, voter registration and the registration of political parties, stressing that the commission also has statutory powers to request the deployment of security agencies for elections and voter registration, making security an integral part of the electoral process.
The INEC chairman stressed that voter registration remained the foundation of credible elections, warning that an inaccurate or outdated voters’ register could undermine the inclusiveness of the electoral process.
He argued that since INEC conducts elections affecting the three tiers of government, election expenditure, including security-related costs, should be approached as a collective national responsibility, adding that adequate funding was particularly critical for the deployment of personnel and electoral materials to local government areas, wards, registration areas and polling units.
The INEC chairman noted that even where security agencies succeed in maintaining peace, inadequate logistics could still undermine the conduct of an election.
Amupitan said INEC had made both security and logistics priorities under his leadership, disclosing that the commission was working with government and security agencies to ensure that operational challenges did not undermine the 2027 polls.
He also highlighted the role of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security ICCES, describing it as a platform that brings INEC and relevant security and government agencies together to coordinate election security, and recalled that 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.
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.
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, and cited recent off-cycle elections as evidence of the importance of adequate security and coordination, recalling that security agencies had helped resolve incidents that could otherwise have disrupted the electoral process.
He 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, adding that while Nigerians expected a highly effective electoral system, they must 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, urging the relevant authorities to provide the resources required by security agencies and INEC to perform their respective responsibilities effectively.
Reaffirming the commission’s 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, charging senior police managers to sustain absolute professional neutrality, proactive intelligence gathering, and seamless inter-agency coordination to continuously protect the integrity of the ballot.
Also speaking at the event, President of the Nigerian Bar Association NBA, Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, charged the leadership and operational personnel of the Nigeria Police Force to extend their unalloyed support and synergy to the INEC chairman in fulfilling his mandate.
She 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.
