Nigerian daily says 2027 presidential race is shaping up to be tense
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on ThisDay, Business Day Nigeria, Premium Times and P.M. News
In London, protesters surrounded the car of INEC chairman Joash Amupitan outside Chatham House, preventing him from leaving. They demand his resignation and question the preliminary electoral register. The same day, in Lagos, men burst into a meeting of the National Democratic Party (NDC).
On Thursday 12 November, protesters surrounded the car of Joash Amupitan, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), outside the Chatham House think tank in London, where he was due to speak about the electoral process. According to ThisDay, they prevented him from leaving the premises. The activists, who reportedly come from the Nigerian diaspora, demand his resignation.
The protesters cite duplicate entries, AI-generated photographs, fake polling stations and the names of deceased people in the preliminary electoral register. Some have described the commission as a 'criminal organisation'. These accusations have not been independently established. As early as 9 November, Amupitan had announced the removal of 1,608,660 invalid registrations and reported 54 people in ten states liable to disciplinary sanctions or prosecution. At Chatham House, he acknowledged that transmission failures during the 2023 elections had undermined confidence in the commission.
In Lagos, on the same day, men burst into a meeting of the National Democratic Party (NDC): property was reportedly destroyed and participants chased.
Electoral violence is not new. The 2011 general elections were followed by deadly riots, with more than 200 people killed and 40,000 displaced according to reports. In February 2023, Oyibo Chukwu, the Labour Party’s Senate candidate for Enugu East, was killed in an attack on his convoy, a few days before the national vote. The African Centre for Security, Governance and Development counts 70 election-related attacks and 27 deaths since the start of 2026. President Bola Tinubu has promised to crack down on this violence before the 2027 presidential election.
