A former Resident Electoral Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mike Igini, has warned that proposed amendments to Nigeria’s electoral framework could expose presiding officers to serious danger during the 2027 general elections.
Speaking on Arise News on Wednesday, Igini criticised what he described as a reintroduction of the controversial “Incident Form” under a different guise, particularly in situations where election officials claim there is no network coverage for electronic transmission of results.
“The danger of what has been passed is that we are bringing back what they call Incident Form. This is another version of Incident Form because there will be no network,” he said.
Drawing from past experience, Igini recalled that when the Card Reader was introduced, provisions were made for voters without fingerprints to ensure inclusivity. However, he alleged that the measure was abused.
“When we introduced Card Reader, we decided to have an application for those who don’t have fingers. We were looking for an all-inclusive electoral process. But you know what happened? Politicians connived with INEC pool staff. That application for only those who don’t have fingers was now used to use Incident Form. The whole community no longer had fingers, and all of that,” he stated.
According to him, granting wide discretionary powers to presiding officers in determining network availability could create tension and distrust at polling units.
“You see, discretionary power can be abused. The danger of what is going to happen in 2027 is as follows. At the polling units, presiding officers’ lives are going to be in danger because where Nigerians are gathered, results of polling have been announced, everyone could look at his telephone and you could see network. But the presiding officer says that there’s no network. You are going to put the life of that presiding officer in danger,” Igini warned.
He further expressed concern that frontline electoral duties are often carried out by National Youth Service Corps members, rather than political elites.
“Meanwhile, the children of all the political elites are not going to be at the polling unit. It’s the youth corpers that they’re going to be faced with. This is a clear danger. So what they are going to do now is like an Incident Form. Another version of Incident Form, which is for you to sabotage the entire thing,” he added.
Igini’s remarks add to growing debate over proposed changes to Nigeria’s electoral laws ahead of the 2027 polls, particularly concerning electronic transmission of results and safeguards for electoral officials deployed to polling units.
