\n
<\/p>\n
By Emmanuel Oloniruha<\/p>\n
Abuja<\/p>\n
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, says adequate funding is critical to securing and conducting the 2027 general elections.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Amupitan said this while delivering a goodwill message at the sixth edition of a retreat for senior police officers in Owerri.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This is contained in a statement on Wednesday by Chief Press Secretary to the\u00a0 INEC Chairman, Adedayo Oketola.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The retreat, organised under the theme, \u2018Developing a Nigeria Police Roadmap for Effective Management of Security During Elections,\u2019 focused on electoral security.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The INEC chairman said sustained funding was necessary to provide the security and logistics required for effective elections nationwide.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He said INEC\u2019s funding was constitutionally provided as a first-line charge on the Consolidated Revenue Fund.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
However, Amupitan said the scale of the commission\u2019s responsibilities required sustained financial support to discharge its constitutional and statutory duties effectively.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He said INEC conducted presidential, National Assembly, governorship and State House of Assembly elections across the country.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The commission, he added, was also responsible for voter registration and the registration of political parties.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Amupitan said INEC\u2019s statutory powers to request security deployment for elections and voter registration made security integral to the electoral process.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes, it is not what you would like to do that you are able to do because of financial constraints,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He said government agencies, including the police and INEC, had to operate within available allocations and approved appropriations.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Amupitan stressed that voter registration remained the foundation of credible elections, warning that inaccurate or outdated registers could undermine electoral inclusiveness.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He said election expenditure, including security-related costs, should be treated as a collective national responsibility because INEC conducts elections across Nigeria\u2019s three tiers of government.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The chairman said adequate funding was particularly important for deploying personnel and electoral materials to local government areas, wards, registration areas and polling units.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He said inadequate logistics could undermine elections even when security agencies successfully maintained peace during the electoral process.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Amupitan said security and logistics had become priorities under his leadership, adding that INEC was working with government and security agencies ahead of 2027.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He highlighted the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) as a platform for coordinating INEC, security and relevant government agencies.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He said ICCES emerged after the 2011 general elections following concerns over post-election violence and had evolved into a structured election-security mechanism.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The INEC chairman said stronger inter-agency coordination would be necessary ahead of 2027, with the police remaining the lead agency for election security.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Amupitan cited recent off-cycle elections as demonstrating the importance of adequate security and coordination in preventing incidents from disrupting electoral processes.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He urged stakeholders to apply lessons from recent elections to strengthen intelligence gathering, logistics and inter-agency coordination before the 2027 polls.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Amupitan said Nigerians expected an effective electoral system but must recognise that achieving such standards required adequate resources.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Nigeria, we want the best. We want our electoral system to be 100 per cent.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cBut sometimes we don\u2019t ask ourselves the question: if we want the nation to be perfect, there must be a cost for it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He urged relevant authorities to provide INEC and security agencies with sufficient resources to discharge their respective responsibilities effectively.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Amupitan also urged senior police managers to maintain professional neutrality, proactive intelligence gathering and seamless inter-agency coordination to protect electoral integrity.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He expressed optimism that the Owerri retreat would produce an actionable roadmap for strengthening election security ahead of the 2027 general elections.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Amupitan was accompanied by National Commissioners Dr Ken Nnamdi Ukeagu and Rear Adm. Jamila Malaga (Rtd.), Imo REC, Chukwuemeka Ibeziakor, and Oketola, the INEC spokesperson. (NAN)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, says adequate funding is critical to securing and conducting the 2027 general elections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1265,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,748,12],"class_list":["post-1264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-election","tag-fund","tag-inec"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/IMG-20260923-WA0126.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1264"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1266,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1264\/revisions\/1266"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}