There have been a number of problems with the behavior of Professor Joash Amupitan, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission. The most recent one is an accusation of partisanship, which has raised questions about the commission’s neutrality as the 2027 general election approaches, Davidson Iriekpen writes.
Professor Joash Amupitan, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has been in the news a lot over the past seven weeks. People are suspicious of all of his actions and inactions, whether it’s fixing the 2027 election during Ramadan, pushing to revalidate permanent voter cards that many thought could disenfranchise millions, or getting involved in the African Democratic Congress (ADC) internal crisis.
Before all of this, his problems started last year right after he was appointed. At the time, the United States had declared Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) because of the genocide against Christians. His legal brief, published in 2020 and called “Nigeria’s Silent Slaughter: Genocide in Nigeria – The Implications for the International Community,” said that attacks by Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen were genocide against Christians and minority groups in Nigeria.
Many Muslim groups in the country accused President Bola Tinubu of being biased and demanded that he withdraw his nomination and that the National Assembly not confirm him.
After that, there were false claims that he worked for President Tinubu’s legal team or the All Progressives Party (APC), but these were proven to be false.
There is now a new claim that he was involved in pro-APC activities during the 2023 general election, which raises more questions about the commission’s neutrality before the 2027 general election.
The argument that started on April 10, 2026, was about claims that an X account, which was said to be connected to him, posted partisan content in support of the APC during the 2023 general election.
According to the report, open-source intelligence (OSINT) linked a Yahoo email address, which is said to be the same as the one on Amupitan’s public University of Jos CV, along with a phone number, to an X (formerly Twitter) account that tweeted “Victory is sure” in response to a tweet from Dayo Israel, who was then the APC National Youth Leader, on March 18, 2023.
Israel’s post praised the APC for winning a polling unit in an area where Igbo people lived during the 2023 elections. The alleged response from Amupitan was used as clear proof of partisan alignment, even though the INEC Chairman had repeatedly said he was not involved in politics.
Screenshots of the conversation have been shared widely, and it looks like the account was either renamed or made private after that, which has led to even more scrutiny of the supposed digital trail.
INEC, on the other hand, quickly denied the claim, calling it “entirely baseless, a total fabrication, and a figment of the imagination of its purveyors.”
The commission said that Prof. Amupitan does not own or run any accounts on X and has always been non-partisan in his work. It went on to say that the claims were part of a “malicious and coordinated campaign of calumny” meant to lower people’s trust in the electoral body.
The electoral umpire also said that cybercriminals often make fake accounts in the names of public officials. They are working with security agencies to find out who is behind this.
Even though he denies it, the discovery of his supposed personal email and phone number links to his OPay account has made the situation much worse, with opposition figures calling for his resignation.
Some people have said that he wasn’t the chairman of INEC when he supposedly tweeted, while others have said that the tweet showed he was biased.
But the African Democratic Congress (ADC), the opposition party, called for his immediate resignation because they said he was biased. They said the claim that he was linked to a pro-Tinubu tweet was not only disturbing but also a serious attack on the integrity of the electoral system.
Bolaji Abdullahi, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, said, “In a democracy, the umpire must not be under suspicion.” He must not only be independent, but he must also be seen to be independent beyond a reasonable doubt. That is the least that anyone who is given the sacred task of running free and fair elections should do.
“However, what’s even more worrying is the desperate attempt to change digital records to hide evidence of his past partisanship. This is not a small thing. It’s a planned attack on honesty and responsibility. You can’t trust a man who changes records to protect his own interests to protect the rights of millions.
Adewole Adebayo, the Social Democratic Party’s (SDP) candidate for president in 2023, has a different view, though. He said that even if it could be proven that the account belonged to Amupitan, that wouldn’t automatically mean he couldn’t hold office under the law.
“You must not be a member of any political party at the time of your appointment.” It doesn’t mean you couldn’t have been a member before or that you didn’t vote. He said, “Someone who voted in 2023 can still be INEC chairman in 2025.”
Adebayo said that if the account turned out to belong to the INEC chair, the issue of integrity would be very important.
But Gbenga Sesan, an expert in technology, questioned INEC’s outright denial that the chairman ever had an X account and called for more investigation. He said that digital archiving tools were proof that an account with Amupitan’s name on it used to exist.
The tech expert also said that to make a social media account, you usually need to have a registered email address or phone number. This suggests that these kinds of links could help prove ownership. He said that INEC’s response was not helpful and that it was not helpful.
“You can’t open an account with someone’s email or phone number unless you can see the verification messages that were sent to them. INEC’s denial doesn’t hold up, and that’s too bad. “Institutions often make things more interesting for the public when they rush to dismiss them,” Sesan said.
Comrade IG Wala, a lawyer, said that his public denial of owning certain digital assets could make him responsible for crimes like perjury and abuse of state power.
The author said that the public space had already found connections between the account in question and Amupitan’s personal email, phone number, and OPay account.
Wala also said that banks like OPay have to follow strict Know Your Customer (KYC) rules.
He said that if a subpoena is issued, showing the BVN and NIN used to verify that account would be proof of ownership that can’t be disputed.
He then warned against the strategy of denial, which was combined with threats to arrest people who brought up alleged digital links. This could turn the issue from a reputational one into a full-blown criminal case.
Amupitan should understand that the INEC Chairman’s office is not just a public office; it is an important part of a democracy. In Nigeria, this is even more true because elections are always full of scandals and claims of rigging. It’s not strange that the people he was supposed to help will keep looking at his past and present records.
So, he should see the many calls for his resignation from different groups, such as opposition parties and civil society, as nothing more than a demand for him to be held accountable.
