By George Mgbeleke <\/p>\n
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has called for heightened security coordination and vigilance as Nigeria enters a busy electoral season leading up to the 2027 General Election.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the first regular meeting of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) for 2026, held on Friday at the INEC Conference Room in Abuja, the Chairman of INEC, Professor Joash Amupitan, said the rising tempo of electoral activities places increased responsibility on security agencies to ensure peaceful, credible and violence-free elections.<\/p>\n
Professor Amupitan noted that 2026 would be particularly demanding, with Area Council elections, bye-elections and off-cycle governorship elections scheduled across several states. He stressed that effective planning, intelligence gathering, inter-agency collaboration and professional deployment of personnel were critical to securing the electoral process.<\/p>\n
The INEC Chairman commended security agencies for their role in the successful conduct of the Anambra State off-cycle Governorship Election held on 8 November 2025, describing the peaceful outcome as a testament to their professionalism and dedication. He said the ability of the Commission to declare a winner on the first ballot, despite the state\u2019s history of election-related security challenges, underscored the importance of proactive and coordinated security operations.<\/p>\n
Ahead of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council Elections scheduled for Saturday, 21 February 2026, Professor Amupitan disclosed that 1,680,315 registered voters are expected to vote across 2,822 polling units in the six Area Councils. He said INEC had concluded major preparations, including the delivery of non-sensitive materials, training of Electoral Officers and election security personnel, and commencement of ad-hoc staff training.<\/p>\n
He added that a mock accreditation exercise would be conducted on Saturday, 7 February 2026, in 289 selected polling units across the FCT, while sensitive materials would be delivered under strict security arrangements. However, he cautioned that administrative readiness alone was not enough, urging security agencies to maintain constant communication and rapid response, especially in flashpoint areas.<\/p>\n
The INEC Chairman also reminded the meeting that bye-elections would hold the same day in Ahoada East II and Khana II State Constituencies in Rivers State, as well as Kano Municipal and Ungogo State Constituencies in Kano State, further underscoring the need for heightened vigilance and adequate manpower deployment.<\/p>\n
Looking ahead, Professor Amupitan said preparations were already underway for the Ekiti State Governorship Election on 20 June 2026 and the Osun State Governorship Election on 8 August 2026, stressing that early security planning was essential to preventing avoidable challenges.<\/p>\n
He further disclosed that INEC would soon embark on a nationwide Voter Revalidation Exercise, alongside ongoing Continuous Voter Registration, noting that both exercises would require robust security support to protect facilities, personnel and citizens.<\/p>\n
Delivering remarks on behalf of the National Security Adviser (NSA) and Co-Chair of ICCES, the Director of Internal Security at the Office of the National Security Adviser, Hassan Abdullahi, congratulated INEC and security agencies on the successful Anambra governorship election. He said the outcome reflected President Bola Ahmed Tinubu\u2019s commitment to free, credible and violence-free elections.<\/p>\n
Abdullahi assured that the Nigeria Police Force, as the lead agency for election security, in collaboration with other security and law enforcement agencies, was mobilising resources to secure the forthcoming FCT Area Council elections and bye-elections in Kano and Rivers States. He said adequate personnel would be deployed to polling units and high-risk areas, while political thugs, vote buyers and individuals with violent tendencies would be identified, restrained or prosecuted in accordance with the law.<\/p>\n
He urged political parties, candidates and their supporters to conduct themselves peacefully, warning that any acts capable of undermining the electoral process would be dealt with decisively. He also called on the media, civil society organisations, community leaders and citizens to actively support peaceful elections as a shared national responsibility.<\/p>\n
In his remarks, the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, represented by the Commissioner of Police in charge of Elections, CP Abayomi Shogunle, reaffirmed the commitment of the Nigeria Police Force to massive deployment for all elections nationwide, assuring that adequate security would continue to be provided for INEC personnel, facilities and materials across the country.<\/p>\n
The meeting ended with a renewed commitment by INEC and security agencies to sustained collaboration, vigilance and professionalism in securing Nigeria\u2019s electoral process throughout the demanding 2026 electoral calendar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By George Mgbeleke The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has called for heightened security coordination and vigilance as Nigeria enters a busy electoral season leading up to the 2027 General Election. Speaking at the first regular meeting of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) for 2026, held on Friday at the INEC Conference […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10889"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10891,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10889\/revisions\/10891"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}