Amupitan stated this during an opening plenary session on the opportunities and risks of artificial intelligence ahead of Nigeria’s 2027 General Elections.

The session, moderated by Arise Television’s Vimbai Mutinhiri-Ekpeyong, also featured Microsoft Senior Director of Global Elections, Dave Liechtman, and ACP Oluseyi Olabisi Okuwobi of the Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre.

The discussions focused on the potential of AI to improve election administration while addressing the risks posed by the misuse of emerging technologies.

Amupitan and other stakeholders raised concerns over deepfakes, cyber threats and manipulated electoral information that could mislead voters and undermine confidence in the electoral process.

They also highlighted the risks associated with synthetic media and the impersonation of political candidates and election officials, warning that such activities could damage public trust in electoral institutions.

The stakeholders called for effective safeguards to maximise the benefits of AI while preventing its misuse during the 2027 elections.

Amupitan stressed that technological innovation must serve electoral transparency and accountability without interfering with the democratic choices of Nigerian voters.

The investiture ceremony brought together National Commissioners, senior officials of the Commission, representatives of government agencies, development partners, returning Youth Ambassadors and the newly selected ambassadors.

Speaking at the ceremony, the Chairman of the Outreach and Partnership Committee (OPC), Prof. Kunle Ajayi, described the initiative as an important platform for strengthening the relationship between INEC and young Nigerians.

Ajayi said the appointment of the ambassadors was not merely the conferment of a title but a responsibility to help strengthen electoral participation and ensure that young Nigerians have access to accurate information about the electoral process.

Representing the INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Ojo Amupitan, SAN, National Commissioner Prof. Rhoda Gumus said the Commission recognised the influence and capacity of the new Youth Ambassadors to engage other young Nigerians.

Gumus said Nigeria’s large youth population has significant implications for democracy and elections, adding that its numerical strength would only become meaningful when matched with informed, organised and responsible participation.

She urged the ambassadors to go beyond encouraging young Nigerians to vote and listen to the reasons some youths disengage from the electoral process, including lack of information, distrust, political frustration, previous experiences and misunderstanding of electoral procedures.

The INEC National Commissioner also charged the ambassadors to help combat misinformation and disinformation, particularly across social media platforms.

She urged them to adopt the principle, “Verify before you amplify,” when sharing information about elections.

Gumus further warned against the manipulation of young Nigerians for electoral violence, noting that youths recruited into violent activities could become victims through death, injuries, arrest and the destruction of their future.

“Do not allow anyone to use your youth against your future,” she said, stressing that political competition should not require young Nigerians to fight, destroy or kill one another.

She also encouraged the ambassadors to promote constructive engagement between young voters, political parties and candidates by encouraging youths to ask questions about issues affecting their lives, including employment, education, security, economic opportunities and skills development.

INEC Chairman, Professor Joash O. Amupitan, SAN, disclosed this on Monday in Kaduna during the commission’s North-West Zonal Interactive Meeting with Staff and Readiness Assessment for the 2027 General Election.

Amupitan urged eligible Nigerians who registered during the recent Continuous Voter Registration exercises to ensure they collect their PVCs when the exercise begins.

He also called on traditional rulers to mobilise eligible citizens in their communities to collect their cards and participate in the electoral process.

The INEC chairman said the commission was working to eliminate bottlenecks affecting PVC distribution at the Local Government Area level to ensure that eligible voters were not disenfranchised because of logistical challenges.

According to him, three phases of the Continuous Voter Registration have produced 10,772,421 new registrations, subject to verification through the Automated Biometric Identification System.

The commission is conducting the North-West readiness assessment as part of a six-zone national tour to identify operational challenges and address them ahead of the 2027 elections.

Amupitan said the success of the elections would depend largely on what happens at the grassroots, particularly at Local Government Areas, Registration Area Centres and polling units.

He said INEC was also refining its technological systems for voter verification and result transmission as part of efforts to strengthen election administration.

The Supervising National Commissioner for Kaduna, Mallam Kudu Haruna, said the Kaduna engagement included a courtesy visit by Amupitan to the Emir of Zazzau and Chairman of the Kaduna State Council of Traditional Rulers.

Haruna said the visit provided an opportunity for INEC to brief traditional institutions on preparations for the 2027 elections and seek their support in encouraging eligible citizens to collect their PVCs.

The party disclosed this in a press statement, saying its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, and his running mate, Dr Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, had held meetings with the National Leader and other members of the party leadership on the formation of the campaign council.

According to the NDC, the presidential candidate and his running mate have been given the responsibility of nominating key officials of the campaign council in consultation with the party.

The positions include Director-General, Deputy Director-General (North), Spokesman, Deputy Spokesperson, Head of New Media, Finance Director, Deputy Finance Director and other key positions.

The party said the Finance Director and his deputy would work with the National Treasurer to manage campaign funds in line with transparency and accountability requirements, noting that the party would be responsible for rendering campaign accounts to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in accordance with the Electoral Act.

The NDC said a full organogram of the campaign structure had been developed since August and presented to Obi and Kwankwaso for their input, while nominations had also been received from stakeholders across the country.

It added that the PCC would be announced and inaugurated after the candidates submit their inputs, while arrangements for campaign funding and fundraising are concluded.

The party said the inauguration, initially scheduled for the first week of September, was postponed due to the travel schedule of the presidential candidate.

The NDC also appealed to its candidates at all levels and their supporters to avoid internal disputes and concentrate on the forthcoming elections.

The party urged its candidates and support groups to focus on defeating the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), saying there were no internal battles to fight within the party.

It further called on all its candidates to work towards securing victories across the various levels of the 2027 elections.

INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash O. Amupitan, SAN, gave the directive on Monday, September 7, 2026, in Lagos while opening a two-day Strategic Operational Workshop for Administrative Secretaries.

Amupitan described the workshop as an election-focused “operational boot camp” aimed at testing the Commission’s preparedness for the 2027 polls. He said INEC could no longer afford different interpretations of administrative responsibilities or inconsistent operational practices across the country.

“We can no longer afford fragmented interpretations of administrative duties or disjointed operational practices from state to state,”

The INEC Chairman said lessons from recent off-cycle elections, particularly the Osun State Governorship Election, would be used to develop operational standards for the nationwide 2027 election.

He noted that timely logistics, functional technology and administrative discipline were key to achieving transparent and credible elections, stressing the need to replicate successful models across all states and the FCT.

Amupitan described Administrative Secretaries as the Commission’s key technical, operational and administrative anchors at the state level, responsible for ensuring continuity and managing the daily operations of INEC offices.

Earlier, the Lagos State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Prof. Ayobami Salami, urged participants to use the workshop to identify institutional gaps and develop practical solutions ahead of the 2027 elections.

Salami stressed the importance of effective coordination of personnel, resources, logistics, finance and infrastructure, while calling for stronger collaboration between administrative and technical functions and improved accountability across the Commission.

The commission warned that AI-powered tools could make it easier to create and circulate fake videos, audio recordings, images and other misleading content capable of influencing voters and undermining confidence in the electoral process.

INEC Chairman, Prof Joash Amupitan, said the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence had introduced new challenges for election management, particularly in detecting and responding to false information.

Represented by National Commissioner Sani Adam at the 13th Annual International Conference of the Association of Communication Scholars and Professionals of Nigeria in Abuja, Amupitan said the commission was taking steps to strengthen its communication and information management systems ahead of the polls.

He said the speed at which AI-generated content could spread on social media meant that false narratives could reach millions of Nigerians before they were verified or debunked.

According to him, INEC would need stronger collaboration with the media, fact-checkers, technology platforms and other stakeholders to identify and counter AI-generated disinformation.

The commission also stressed the importance of public awareness and media literacy, urging Nigerians to verify election-related information before sharing it.

INEC said protecting the credibility of the 2027 elections would require not only secure electoral technology but also effective measures to prevent emerging AI tools from being used to manipulate voters and distort public understanding of the electoral process.

Michael made the remarks while speaking with National Focus in a phone conversation, where he explained how AI could be used to monitor the electoral process and identify discrepancies between results recorded at polling units and figures eventually declared.

He said the focus should not be on building an AI system that determines who wins an election, but on using technology to help Nigerians detect when election results do not correspond with what happened at polling units.

According to him, election rigging is not limited to ballot-box manipulation, as it can also occur through the manipulation of results, inconsistencies during collation, altered documents and coordinated misinformation.

Michael said there could be significant discrepancies between what happens at polling units and what is eventually declared during the collation process.

“AI can connect those dots for us,” he said, advocating an independent AI-powered election monitoring system capable of tracking results from polling units through wards, local government areas and states.

He explained that such a system could compare results sheets with transmitted results, reconcile figures at different stages of collation and flag mathematical inconsistencies.

Michael added that AI could identify abnormal voting patterns, duplicate or suspicious result sheets and potentially manipulated images.

He said the technology could also flag situations where the number of accredited voters or the population of an electoral area does not correspond with the figures eventually declared.

“When something doesn’t add up, it doesn’t say AI will not come out and say this election was rigged. It will clearly say, ‘Investigate this polling unit,’” he explained.

The Analaize CEO proposed that voters and observers at polling units should photograph result sheets immediately after results are recorded, creating independent, time-stamped evidence that could be compared with official results.

“If they match, it automatically becomes verified. If they don’t, discrepancy detected,” Michael said.

He noted that such a system, if deployed across Nigeria’s more than 180,000 polling units, could transform election monitoring by providing real-time evidence of discrepancies and suspicious activities.

Michael stressed that AI would not replace the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), election observers, journalists or political parties, but would give them the speed, scale and evidence required to monitor the electoral process more effectively.

He warned that waiting until months after an election to discover that thousands of results do not reconcile could be too late, particularly after elected officials had been sworn into office.

“The objective shouldn’t be to build an AI that decides who won an election. The objective should be to build an AI that makes it extraordinarily difficult to severely change what happened,” he said.

Michael argued that Nigeria could draw lessons from the use of AI in detecting fraud in banking, cybersecurity and financial systems and apply similar technology to protect the integrity of elections.

“The future of election integrity may not be another voting machine. It may be an AI watching the entire electoral system, one polling unit at a time,” he said.

He added: “Nigeria doesn’t need AI to choose our leaders. Nigeria needs AI to help make sure that people choose them, not them choosing themselves.”

The party made this known in a statement issued on Sunday, August 23, 2026, by its state chairman, Chief Yemi Sanusi, following claims by Abayomi Semako Hunye that he was the APC governorship candidate for the state.

The Ogun APC described the claim as false and urged party members, supporters and members of the public to disregard any contrary declaration.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the Ogun State APC wishes to state clearly that Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola, popularly known as Yayi, is the duly recognised governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Ogun State for the 2027 election,” the party said.

According to the statement, Adeola emerged as the winner of the party’s governorship primary after polling 304,055 votes out of 305,287 accredited voters who participated in the exercise.

The party said Adeola subsequently selected Mrs Kudirat Abiodun Adegunwa-Balogun as his running mate.

It added that the names of Adeola and Adegunwa-Balogun had been submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the APC’s governorship candidate and running mate for the 2027 election.

The party therefore dissociated itself from any statement or declaration by Hunye or any other individual claiming to represent the APC as its governorship candidate in Ogun State.

The APC urged its members and the general public to rely only on official communications from the party and relevant electoral authorities regarding its candidates for the 2027 election.

The party maintained that Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola (Yayi) remains the APC candidate for the 2027 Ogun State governorship election.