Politics
Imo Poll: Groups Demand REC, Others’ Sack
Some civil society groups in the Southeast have written to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), pointing out conditions for inclusive, free and credible governorship election in Imo State, scheduled for November 11, 2023.
In separate petitions to the national chairman of the commission, Mahmoud Yakubu, the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) and the South-East Zone of the Civil Liberties Organisation (South-East CLO) specifically demanded the removal of the state Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Prof. Silvia Agu and 17 other top electoral officers and the demilitarisation of the polling units and result collation centres.
The groups disclosed that several investigations into state of affairs in Imo State indicated that the enthronement of popular and credible democratic government in the state remained key to ending myriad of problems bedevilling the state since January, 2020.
While Intersociety’s letter was dated Monday, August 21, 2023 and signed by the board chairman, Emeka Umeagbalasi, Chidinma Udegbunam Esquire (head of publicity) and Ositadinma Agu (head of contacts and mobilisation), that of the South-East CLO was dated Tuesday, August 22, 2023 and signed by the chairman of the South-East CLO, Comrade Aloysius Emeka Attah.
In the petitions, the groups urged the headquarters of the commission to comprehensively overhaul the Imo INEC and its principal departments, including EOs, Administration, Operations, ICT, Voter Education, among others and address the anomalies arising from the 2023 presidential/national/state assembly polls in the state.
“Several INEC officers were strongly accused of playing different indictable roles to undermine the credibility of the polls; to the extent that the state assembly poll in the state was the worst of it all and a ‘walkover’ for candidates of the state ruling APC by “winning” 26 of the State’s 27 House of Assembly seats.
“Vicariously or otherwise, the state’s Resident Electoral Commissioner, Prof Sylvia Agu, did not stand tall to be counted and respected owing to her poor handling of the earlier 2023 polls and therefore could not be trusted to organise and deliver a free, participatory and credible governorship poll in the state scheduled for November 11, 2023″, read one of the petitions.
It also added that having comprehensively checked and monitored the goings on in Imo State ahead of the November 11, 2023 governorship poll, it has found that REC Sylvia Agu and 17 other top electoral officers, including 11 EOs and six departmental heads drawn from the State INEC Secretariat are grossly incapable of ensuring free, participatory and credible Governorship Poll in the State.
The petition urged the INEC national headquarters to address all the wrongs arising from the 2023 general election and clean up and reposition the state’s INEC ahead of the Nov 11, 2023 governorship poll.
They further called on the INEC that several of the electoral officers in the 27 Local Government Areas in the state had long overstayed far above periods allowed by the INEC Establishment Act of 2004 or the Electoral Act of 2022 as amended which has also made them vulnerable to electoral corruption and related sharp practices.
They therefore maintained that they were certainly not sure that the Imo REC, Prof Sylvia Agu is capable of conducting free, participatory and credible Governorship Poll in the State on Nov 11, 2023; with a clear case in point being her recent invitation of 2,300 soldiers for the Poll which was not only widely condemned and rejected but also seen by many as “militarization of the Poll with intent to rig the election.”
Prof. Amupitan gave the warning on Saturday, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, during the South-South Zonal Readiness Assessment and Interactive Staff Engagement organised ahead of the 2027 general elections.
He said insecurity remained a potential challenge to the electoral process but stressed that the Commission would not allow threats against its personnel to undermine its constitutional responsibilities.
“Insecurity may pose a challenge, but our collective constitutional resolve is far stronger. Let me again send a clear message from Port Harcourt: anyone who attempts to threaten, intimidate, or harm our ad-hoc staff, NYSC members, or permanent personnel will be brought to justice under the full weight of the law,” he said.
The INEC Chairman, who was accompanied by National Commissioners, directors and technical aides, disclosed that the South-South engagement was the fifth in a series of zonal assessments, following similar exercises in the South-West, North-West, South-East and North-East.
He explained that his physical presence across the geopolitical zones reflected the Commission’s field-first approach, emphasising that electoral integrity must be established through effective operations at the grassroots.
According to him, the assessment would cover operational preparedness across the 123 Local Government Areas in the six South-South states.
On election security, Prof. Amupitan said INEC had moved away from reactive security arrangements traditionally activated around election day to a proactive, intelligence-driven framework known as the “ICCES Tentacle”.
He explained that the framework was designed to extend inter-agency security coordination from national and state headquarters to local government areas and Registration Area Centres, including remote communities.
He identified three critical pillars of the framework as mapping and mitigating security threats, protecting electoral personnel and infrastructure, and guaranteeing safe access to polling units.
The INEC boss said the security arrangement would provide comprehensive protection for electoral personnel, technological infrastructure, including Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devices and server infrastructure, as well as voters.
He added that the framework was intended to ensure that every polling unit, irrespective of its geographical location or history of security challenges, remained safe and accessible for the exercise of democratic rights.
Prof. Amupitan disclosed that the South-South security architecture comprised approximately 60 major operational formations, headquarters and state commands operating under the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES).
The network, he said, brings together military, naval, air, police and other security and intelligence agencies across the six states.
“Together, this integrated multi-agency network represents the operational backbone that guarantees intelligence-led protection across every riverine creek, coastal axis, and land-based polling unit in the Niger Delta,” he stated.
Providing an overview of the region’s electoral significance, the INEC Chairman said the South-South had the fourth-largest voting bloc in the country, with 15,823,550 registered voters, representing 15.30 per cent of the national register.
Rivers State alone, he said, accounts for 3,736,434 registered voters spread across the 23 local government areas.
Alhaji Abubakar made the demand following revelations that some INEC registration officers allegedly abused their access to the voter registration system to introduce irregular records into the database.
In a statement issued by his Director of Strategic Communications, Mr Phrank Shaibu, the former vice-president described the development as a serious breach of the Commission’s internal safeguards and raised concerns about the integrity of the electoral process.
He urged INEC to identify the officials implicated in the alleged misconduct and explain what disciplinary or legal measures had been taken against them.
Alhaji Abubakar also called for an independent forensic audit of the preliminary voters’ register to establish the scale of the alleged manipulation, identify affected records and determine how the questionable entries were introduced into the system.
He further insisted that INEC preserve all relevant voter records, image files, system access logs and electronic audit trails to prevent the destruction or alteration of evidence before an independent examination could be conducted.
The former vice-president also demanded that the Commission disclose the identities of companies contracted to produce sensitive election materials ahead of the 2027 polls, arguing that transparency was essential to building public confidence in the electoral process.
INEC’s Director of Information and Communication Technology, Dr Lawrence Bayode, had earlier disclosed during a television interview that some registration officers across the country allegedly used their official login credentials to introduce irregularities into the voters’ database.
Dr Bayode explained that the Commission’s Automated Biometric Identification System helped identify questionable records and establish how some irregularities entered the system.
He, however, clarified that not all suspicious photographs were AI-generated, as some resulted from poor registration procedures.
The development followed public concerns over suspected AI-generated photographs, alleged duplicate entries and other inconsistencies discovered in the preliminary voters’ register published online on October 26, 2026.
INEC has maintained that the published document is a preliminary register and that it is reviewing questionable records ahead of the certification of the final Register of Voters.
The controversy has intensified calls for greater transparency and accountability in the management of the voters’ register as preparations gather momentum for the 2027 general elections.
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