• Don’t surrender PVC for cash or salary, Obi warns electorate
• We’ll collate, share results, ADC tells INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is deploying Artificial Intelligence (AI) data-auditing tools and advanced cyber-defence systems in partnership with global technology giants, Google and Microsoft, to protect Nigeria’s electoral database from cyber-attack. 
 
It also vowed to immediately dismiss and prosecute electoral officials found engaging in partisan activities, administrative carelessness or other ethical compromises during the elections.
 
Similarly, the Peter Obi Media Office has raised the alarm over alleged attempts by politicians to turn Nigerians’ economic hardship into a weapon for controlling their votes.
 
The office alleged that some members of the ruling party were offering money for Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), while some state governors were allegedly demanding PVCs from citizens, including civil servants, before they received their salaries and allowances.
 
African Democratic Congress (ADC), on its part, has stated that it will document, collate and share polling unit results with the public during the 2027 general elections, while respecting INEC’s statutory responsibility to declare official election outcomes and to announce winners. 
 
The party was responding to the INEC chairman’s warning against the sharing of privately collated results.
 
INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, while delivering the keynote at the 10th Annual Conference of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP) in Lagos, yesterday, said the technological measures were part of efforts to ensure that public confidence in the 2027 elections was based on verifiable processes rather than assurances.
 
Speaking on the theme, ‘2027 Elections: Trust, Transparency and Shared Responsibilities’, Amupitan said the commission had embarked on major technological, structural and logistical reforms to strengthen the integrity of the elections.
 
Amupitan, who was represented by the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Lagos State, Prof. Ayobami Salami, said the deployment of AI and advanced cyber-security infrastructure was aimed at protecting INEC’s databases against cyber intrusions, Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks and unauthorised data injection.
 
On dismissing partisan staff, the INEC Chairman said every electoral official was required under Section 26 of the Electoral Act 2026 to take a binding oath of loyalty and absolute neutrality.
 
He declared that officials who compromise the process would face immediate consequences.
  
“As I told our field officers during our North-West assessment in Kaduna: To the voter in a local ward, INEC is not the Chairman in Abuja; INEC is you. 
 
“Pursuant to Section 26 of the Electoral Act 2026, every official must take a binding oath of loyalty and absolute neutrality. Partisanship, administrative carelessness, or ethical compromises will be met with immediate dismissal and statutory prosecution.”

The Obi camp warned Nigerians not to surrender their voting power because of poverty, insisting that anyone who takes their PVC today could use it to determine their political future tomorrow.
 
The warning was contained in a statement issued yesterday by the spokesman for the Peter Obi Media Office, Idris Zekeri Jnr., who urged Nigerians to reject cash and other inducements offered in exchange for their votes, PVCs, or participation in schemes that could compromise the electoral process.
 
He said: “Your PVC is not for sale. Your vote is not for sale. Your future is not for sale.”
 
The office urged voters to collect and secure their PVCs and report suspected electoral manipulation to the appropriate authorities.
 
It also called on Nigerians to turn out en masse on election day, vote according to their conscience and use lawful means to protect their ballots.
 
The allegations about PVC collection and salary-linked inducements could not be independently verified.

In a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, ADC asserted that independently collating and sharing election results is a constitutional right. The party, therefore, maintains the right to freely collect and share information, including election results.
 
“We are aware of our rights to freedom of expression under the Constitution. We are also aware of the limitations associated with those rights. We hold that our rights to collate and share election results are not abrogated by any of the limitation clauses. 
 
“The ADC will share our collated results with the public. Our agents will document results, our structures will collate them, and we will communicate verified figures to the public, clearly identifying their source and status,” the party said. 
 
The party said that, although it recognises INEC’s responsibility to make official declarations of results and to declare election winners, that responsibility cannot reasonably abrogate the right of citizens to collect, collate, and share election results.