By Our Correspondent
The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Joash Amupitan, has said adequate funding is critical to providing the security and logistics required for the successful conduct of the 2027 general elections.
Amupitan spoke on Wednesday in Owerri, Imo State, while delivering 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.”
In a statement issued to INEC correspondents in Abuja by the commission’s Chief Press Secretary and Media Adviser, Adedayo Oketola, the INEC chairman said the scale of the commission’s responsibilities required sustained financial support to enable it to conduct elections effectively.
He noted that although INEC’s funding was constitutionally provided as a first-line charge on the Consolidated Revenue Fund, financial constraints could affect the commission’s ability to discharge its responsibilities.
“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,” he said.
Amupitan said INEC was responsible not only for presidential and National Assembly elections but also for governorship and state House of Assembly elections, voter registration and the registration of political parties.
He added that the commission had 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chairman stressed that voter registration remained the foundation of credible elections, warning that an inaccurate or outdated voters’ register could undermine the inclusiveness of the electoral process.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 said that because INEC conducts elections across the three tiers of government, election expenditure, including security-related costs, should be regarded as a collective national responsibility.
According to him, adequate funding was particularly important for the deployment of personnel and electoral materials to local government areas, wards, registration areas and polling units.
“Even where security agencies succeed in maintaining peace, inadequate logistics could still undermine the conduct of an election,” he said.
Amupitan said security and logistics had become priorities under his leadership, adding that INEC was working with the government and security agencies to ensure that operational challenges did not undermine the 2027 elections.
He also highlighted the role of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES), describing it as a platform for coordination between INEC, security agencies and other relevant government institutions.
According to him, ICCES was established as a coordinating arrangement following the 2011 general elections, amid concerns over post-election violence, and had since evolved into a structured mechanism for election security coordination.
He said the committee 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 relevant agencies would be necessary ahead of the 2027 elections, stressing that the police remained the lead agency for election security.
He cited recent off-cycle elections as evidence of the importance of adequate security and coordination, saying security agencies had helped resolve incidents that could otherwise have disrupted the electoral process.
Amupitan said lessons from recent elections should be used to strengthen preparations for the 2027 general elections, particularly in intelligence gathering, logistics and inter-agency coordination.
He said Nigerians expected a highly effective electoral system but should 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.
He urged the relevant authorities to provide the resources required by INEC and security agencies to enable them to discharge their responsibilities effectively.
Reaffirming the commission’s commitment to strengthening operational synergy through ICCES, Amupitan expressed optimism that the Owerri retreat would produce an actionable and forward-looking roadmap ahead of the 2027 general elections.
He charged senior police officers to maintain professional neutrality, strengthen proactive intelligence gathering and sustain inter-agency coordination to protect the integrity of the electoral process.
Also speaking, the President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, urged the leadership and operational personnel of the Nigeria Police Force to provide support and maintain synergy with the INEC chairman in the discharge of his mandate.
Badejo-Okusanya said effective policing support remained essential to safeguarding the electoral process and facilitating the conduct of free, fair, credible and transparent elections across the country.
