Vote buying biggest threat to Nigeria’s democracy- Oketola, INEC Media Adviser

In this interview, Adedayo Oketola, Chief Press Secretary and Media Adviser to the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Joash Amupitan, SAN, speaks on the successful conduct of the Ekiti governorship election, preparations for the 2027 general election, the growing menace of vote buying, internal crises within political parties, electoral technology, data security and other issues shaping Nigeria’s democratic process

The Ekiti governorship election has received widespread commendation. What, in your view, accounted for the success of the exercise?

The Ekiti State Governorship Election on June 20, 2026, marks the third major off-cycle election successfully delivered under the leadership of our Chairman, Professor Joash Amupitan, SAN. This follows the successful conduct of the Anambra State Governorship Election on Saturday, November 8, 2025, and the FCT Area Council Elections on Saturday, February 21, 2026. Alongside the Ekiti poll, we also successfully conducted six concurrent legislative by-elections in Ondo, Nasarawa, Kano, Rivers, Kebbi, and Enugu on the same day. With 1,059,360 total registered voters and an impressive 1,028,929 Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) collected, the Ekiti poll has been generally adjudged peaceful, transparent, and credible.

What operational and logistical measures did INEC put in place to ensure the smooth conduct of the Ekiti election?

Before Election Day, the Commission committed to activating all 2,445 polling units in Ekiti at exactly 8:30 a.m. The Chairman always says that an election is only as good as its logistics, which is why he aggressively overhauled the Commission’s logistics framework upon assuming office. That strategic review paid off beautifully in Ekiti. Thanks to the early morning deployment of men and materials, over 93 per cent of the polling units opened and commenced accreditation strictly by 8:30 a.m. The BVAS devices performed optimally across the state, and accreditation was seamless. We also recorded exceptionally swift, transparent uploads of results to the IReV portal.   Remember that elections cannot be truly credible if voters, observers, and electoral officials operate in an atmosphere of physical intimidation, fear, or violence. In Ekiti, security agencies, under the Inter-agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES), provided the right environment that allowed voters to exercise their franchise without fear.

Opposition parties alleged vote buying, voter intimidation and unlawful transfer of PVCs during the election. How does the Commission respond to those claims?

Let me start with vote-buying. Vote-buying is a malignant contaminant in our electoral ecosystem. It has become a toxic menace which threatens to turn our democracy into a transactional marketplace, and the Commission condemns it in the strongest possible terms. However, we must constantly clarify that INEC’s statutory responsibility is to organise and conduct elections. Even though the law mandates INEC to prosecute electoral offenders such as vote traders, we do not have our own police. We rely on security agencies to make arrests and conduct investigations, which makes the task herculean given the processes involved. We will continue to rely on the security agencies to stamp out this menace aggressively. In contrast, we continue to engage and sensitise the public on the dangers of trading their votes. We also continually call on stakeholders, including the media, to join the Commission in tackling this menace. The allegations regarding the transfer of PVCs to non-indigenes were a completely baseless narrative and a calculated attempt to mislead the public. Under our current technological dispensation, a PVC is completely useless in the hands of an impostor. The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) acts as an uncompromised biometric gatekeeper using a strict verification process. The device must successfully match your fingerprint or scan your facial features against our database before a ballot paper can legally be handed to you. If the biometrics do not match the specific identity embedded on that physical card, the BVAS locks out the bearer. You cannot bypass it, so proxy voting is impossible in modern Nigerian elections. With BVAS, your vote cannot be stolen.

Some political parties conducted primaries after the deadline set by INEC. What is the Commission’s position on such exercises?

The Commission’s position is firm, legally unyielding, and strictly governed by the Electoral Act. Deadlines contained in the official INEC Timetable and Schedule of Activities are not tentative suggestions; they are hard statutory boundaries.  The Commission has the Regulations and Guidelines for Political Parties, 2026 and the Regulations and Guidelines for the Conduct of Elections, 2026, in line with section 151 of the Electoral Act, 2026. Part primaries remain the gateway to democratic governance, and their credibility directly impacts the quality and integrity of the electoral process. So, any political party that conducts its primaries outside the INEC Timetable and Schedule of Activities is engaging in an exercise in futility. INEC will not accept or recognise candidates emerging from such exercises. We cannot adjust national timelines to accommodate internal party disorganisation. If a party fails to conduct valid, transparent primaries within the legal timeframe, it simply locks itself out of the ballot. The rules apply equally to everyone.

There have been allegations of a breach of INEC’s database. What exactly happened, and should Nigerians be worried about the security of their personal information?

There was absolutely no external breach or hacking of the INEC database. An isolated, unauthorised internal disclosure of confidential documents by a staff member occurred. As part of our nationwide Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise, the Commission grants our registration officers restricted, controlled access to specific backend components to process new applicants, handle voter transfers, and update records. This access is strictly monitored and withdrawn the moment an exercise closes. In the specific case referenced on social media, which involves the personal data of a prominent actor, a staff member unlawfully obtained confidential documents and passed them to an aide to a serving minister. INEC frowns heavily on any violation of data privacy. We took immediate administrative action: the staff member was promptly handed over to the security agency, while the police thoroughly grilled the minister’s aide. We want to reassure the Nigerian public that voters’ biometric and personal data remain protected, secure, and entirely inaccessible to third-party political actors.

Internal crises have continued to plague many political parties. How is this affecting Nigeria’s electoral process?

The persistent, toxic leadership squabbles within various political parties are heavily straining the integrity of our broader electoral process. The very essence of democracy relies on political parties behaving like mature, rule-bound institutions that respect fair play. Unfortunately, the current wave of internal infighting shows a severe collapse of internal democracy. This internal chaos not only damages the parties involved; it also triggers a deluge of pre-election litigation that unnecessarily chokes our judicial system and drains public resources. INEC routinely finds itself dragged into these internal court battles as a nominal party, consuming our critical administrative time and distracting us from our core logistical duties. The success of the 2027 general election depends heavily not just on the Commission but also on the political parties. They must understand that INEC cannot be blamed for the crises bedevilling them. Cohesive, transparent leadership is essential for the health of our democracy. We strongly urge party leaders to prioritise constructive internal dialogue over divisive court dramas and to strictly adhere to the Electoral Act and their own party constitutions.

INEC is often drawn into disputes arising from rival factions within political parties. How does the Commission maintain its neutrality in such situations?

INEC remains a completely dispassionate, neutral umpire. We do not side with factions, nor do we take a vested interest in who wins a party’s internal ticket. Our constitutional mandate is to obey valid orders from courts of competent jurisdiction. However, where necessary and appropriate, the Commission has stepped in to mediate administratively between warring factions—not to dictate terms, but to help them find a lawful middle ground and resolve disputes before they escalate into logistical nightmares for the country. We will continue to push political parties to internalise democratic principles and adopt robust alternative dispute resolution mechanisms rather than defaulting to destructive internal warfare.

There are growing concerns over politicians obtaining conflicting court orders from courts of coordinate jurisdiction. What is INEC’s assessment of this trend?

Yes, there are concerns over politicians engaging in forum shopping, that is, looking for favourable judges of coordinate jurisdiction across different states to obtain conflicting orders. Forum shopping is a deeply retrogressive practice, a blatant abuse of the judicial process, and a direct threat to electoral stability. It creates a chaotic situation in which the Commission is served with contradictory court orders on the same matter from courts sitting in entirely different states. It is highly condemnable. Thankfully, the leadership of the Nigerian judiciary, through the National Judicial Council (NJC), has taken an aggressive stance against this practice by penalising errant judicial officers. For democracy to thrive, politicians must stop treating the courts like a supermarket where they can shop for custom-made injunctions to upend legitimate democratic processes.

How prepared is INEC for the Osun governorship election and, more importantly, the 2027 general election?

We are in a state of continuous, active readiness. The successes recorded in Ekiti have provided us with invaluable operational data that we will inject into our planning for the Osun State Governorship Election. Our logistics lines are fully awake, our staff are undergoing continuous specialised training, and our technological assets are constantly being audited and upgraded. The Commission recently held a media forum in Oshogbo, the Osun State Capital, where the National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee (IVEC), Mohammed Kudu Haruna, charged media practitioners in the state to treat vote buying as a frontline investigative priority ahead of the August 15, 2026, Governorship Election. He lamented that vote buying was the most alarming development to emerge from the Ekiti Governorship Election, noting that political actors and their agents were widely reported to have offered cash to voters at polling units, in some cases through numbered vouchers redeemable outside polling locations to evade detection. Section 22 of the Electoral Act 2026, which prescribes a fine of not less than five million naira, imprisonment of up to two years, or both, alongside a ten-year disqualification from contesting public office, for persons convicted of vote trading. As for the 2027 general election, we are not waiting until election year to prepare; we are preparing every single day. Under Professor Amupitan’s leadership, INEC is completely focused, systematic, and structurally ready to deliver a general election that Nigerians can be genuinely proud of.

Some Nigerians remain sceptical about the credibility of the 2027 elections. What assurance can the Commission give the electorate?

Fear and anxiety are common in any high-stakes political cycle, but our response to fear will always be empirical performance. Look at our performance from Anambra in 2025 to the FCT and now Ekiti in 2026. The data show steady, measurable improvements in poll opening times, technological stability, and transparency in the transmission of results. The 2027 general election will be credible because our technological frameworks, especially the BVAS and the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV), have been safeguarded against manipulation. We have eliminated the human vulnerabilities that once defined elections in Nigeria. Our systems guarantee that only the actual numbers recorded by voters at the polling units will determine the outcome. The public should trade its fears for confidence; the Commission is fiercely committed to protecting the sanctity of every single ballot.