The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has warned politicians that their ambitions were not worth the blood of Nigerians, vowing arrests, sanctions and prosecution against parties, candidates and agents who resort to violence, hate speech and vote-buying during the 2027 general election.
INEC Chairman, Professor Joash Amupitan SAN, gave the warning at a strategic workshop for editors, organised by the Nigerian Guild of Editors, NGE, in collaboration with the commission, in Abuja yesterday.
“As electioneering intensifies across the country, I must sound a clear note of warning to all political parties, candidates, and campaign managers: INEC will not stand by and allow political competition to devolve into violence, intimidation, or inflammatory rhetoric.
“Democracy thrives on the clash of ideas, not the clash of weapons or the proliferation of hate speech,” he stated.
Amupitan said the commission had put machinery in place to track offenders, adding that “through the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security, ICCES, we have activated an early-warning tracking framework to log incidents of political violence, thuggery and dangerous campaign rhetoric.
“Any political party or candidate implicated in inciting violence, disrupting rivals’ rallies or deploying armed thugs will face direct statutory sanctions and swift prosecution. No political office in this country is worth the blood of a single Nigerian.’’
Departing from his prepared speech, the chairman said he had just been shown evidence of the kind of conduct he was warning against.
“Just before I was invited to come and speak, somebody shared with me… a person, an NDC candidate in Kano State who was campaigning yesterday with a gun in his hands, brandishing the gun, and so on and so forth.
“Another person was threatening that with AK-47s, they will kill all of us in the commission. So, that is what elections have turned into in Nigeria of today,” Amupitan lamented.
He appealed for restraint, saying “let us not forget our role as citizens of Nigeria to be patriotic because election is a periodic process for the election of leaders every four years”.
On vote-buying, the chairman also announced a crackdown on money politics, stressing that the integrity of the ballot box was fatally compromised when a citizen’s vote was treated as a commodity for sale.
“The commission is taking an uncompromising stance against vote-buying in all its forms ahead of the 2027 general election,” he said.
He disclosed that the commission was working with the Federal Ministry of Justice, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit NFIU.
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