The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has intensified preparations for the 2027 General Election, directing its officials to close operational gaps, uphold neutrality and strengthen field operations ahead of the polls.
INEC Chairman, Professor Joash O. Amupitan, SAN, gave the directive on Monday in Kaduna during the Commission’s North-West Zonal Interactive Meeting with Staff and Readiness Assessment for the 2027 General Election.
The engagement is part of INEC’s six-zone nationwide readiness assessment aimed at identifying operational challenges, assessing the preparedness of state offices and developing practical solutions ahead of the 2027 elections.
Declaring the meeting open, Amupitan said the exercise was not merely an administrative engagement but part of the Commission’s efforts to strengthen the foundations of Nigeria’s electoral process.
He stressed that the success of an election was largely determined at the grassroots, particularly at Local Government Areas, Registration Area Centres and polling units where electoral officials interact directly with voters.
“The true success of any election is not decided solely in the meeting rooms of our headquarters in Abuja. It is decided in the field,” the INEC chairman said.
Amupitan urged staff across the North-West to use the engagement to identify practical challenges affecting election administration and work with the Commission’s headquarters to address them before election day.
He said INEC was building on lessons from previous elections while preparing for the larger national assignment in 2027.
The chairman also warned electoral officials against partisan conduct and administrative negligence, stressing that neutrality and professionalism among field personnel would be crucial to public confidence in the electoral process.
According to him, three phases of the Continuous Voter Registration exercise have produced 10,772,421 new registrations, subject to verification through the Automated Biometric Identification System.
Amupitan also disclosed that collection of newly issued Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) is scheduled to commence on October 9, urging officials to eliminate distribution bottlenecks, particularly at the Local Government Area level.
He said the Commission would continue to refine its technological systems, including voter verification, result transmission and result management processes, with the recently introduced eEC8A among the systems being developed.
The Commission, he added, is also implementing a “Zero-Failure” approach to logistics, covering early deployment of election materials, movement coordination, security arrangements and training of ad-hoc personnel.
Earlier, the Supervising National Commissioner for Kaduna, Mallam Kudu Haruna, said the zonal meetings were designed to enable the Commission’s leadership to directly engage staff across the country and obtain firsthand reports on preparations for the elections.
Haruna said the Kaduna engagement began with a courtesy visit by the INEC Chairman to the Emir of Zazzau and Chairman of the Kaduna State Council of Traditional Rulers.
He said the visit provided an opportunity for the Commission to brief the traditional ruler on preparations for the 2027 elections and seek the support of traditional institutions in mobilising eligible Nigerians to participate in the electoral process.
Haruna urged traditional rulers to encourage eligible citizens to collect their PVCs and exercise their constitutional right to vote.
The Director of Planning and Monitoring, Helen Ajayi, said the zonal exercise was aimed at assessing the level of preparedness across states and identifying operational challenges before the elections.
She added that the sessions were also designed to ensure that staff remained aligned with the Commission’s Code of Conduct ahead of the polls.
Representatives of INEC’s Voter Education and Publicity, Voter Registry, ICT, Human Resources, and Election and Operations departments also made presentations on their respective areas of responsibility.
The presentations covered voter registration, PVC collection and other concluded, ongoing and pending activities leading to the 2027 General Election.
The meeting subsequently moved into state-by-state situation reports, with representatives from states across the North-West presenting their levels of preparedness and highlighting operational and logistical challenges requiring attention ahead of the polls.
The Kaduna engagement forms part of INEC’s wider assessment of its readiness as the Commission continues efforts to strengthen election administration and address identified gaps ahead of the 2027 General Election.
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