The camp of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has declared that the continued leadership of Independent National Electoral Commission Chairman Prof. Joash Amupitan poses a threat to democracy and to the credibility of the 2027 general elections.
In a post on X on Friday, Atiku’s media aide Paul Ibe accused Amupitan of partisanship, pointing to two controversies that he said undermine the chairman’s neutrality.
The first involves allegations from April that digital traces linked Amupitan to a partisan X account that made political comments and celebrated the ruling APC’s victory.
INEC dismissed the claims the same day, saying an independent cybersecurity investigation had cleared him, but Ibe argued the probe lacked impartiality because it was commissioned and paid for by INEC itself and the identity of the cybersecurity firm was never made public.
The second controversy relates to the alleged leak of personal data belonging to Nigerian Democratic Congress aspirant Emeka Ike.
Ibe linked Amupitan to the removal of David Mark-led ADC exco names from the INEC portal and said Lere Olayinka, media aide to FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, is at the center of allegations that he worked with unnamed INEC officials to illegally obtain the aspirant’s data.
Reports say Olayinka has been questioned by police, but Ibe cast doubt on that account and warned that failure to properly investigate the breach could enable a large-scale compromise of electoral data in 2027.
With the polls about eight months away, Ibe said combining Amupitan’s suspected partisanship with the data scandal could erode public trust and produce a situation worse than the glitch that affected the 2023 presidential results.
