Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC), Prof. Joash Amupitan has said the agency will activate intelligence operations to combat vote buying ahead of next year’s general elections, acknowledging that the practice has migrated beyond polling stations and now requires pre-emptive detection.
Speaking at the sixth Conference and Retreat for Senior Police Officers (CARSPO) 2026 in Owerri, Imo State, Amupitan said vote buying had become “clinical,” with operatives no longer conducting transactions at polling units but arranging them elsewhere before election day.
Amupitan said INEC would focus on intelligence gathering because “these things are done and planned before the election.”
He described election operations as having a “brain,” “hands” and “mind,” with intelligence serving as the “mind of operations” needed to identify and disrupt vote-buying networks.
The INEC Chairman said the commission lacks powers of arrest or investigation, limiting its ability to prosecute offenders unilaterally.
To close that gap, he said plans are underway to constitute a joint task force that would bring together the Federal Ministry of Justice, the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation, the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) and law-enforcement agencies.
So long as people are waiting to be bought or to trade, then it will still become a viable business,” Amupitan said, adding that INEC would work with police and other agencies to ensure those guilty of electoral offences are “arrested, investigated and even prosecuted.”
The Chairman tied election security to adequate funding, warning that insufficient resources could undermine logistics and result management.
He also decried the volume of hate speech during political campaigns and challenged the police to live up to their responsibility by enforcing existing laws.
Security remains INEC’s “number one concern,” Amupitan said, citing persistent insecurity in parts of Nigeria that could disenfranchise voters.
He said the commission is liaising with the Nigerian Police, the lead agency on election security,to strategize for holding elections in volatile areas.
The remarks came as President Bola Tinubu and Inspector-General of Police Olatunji Disu used the same retreat to urge professionalism and readiness ahead of the 2027 polls.
INEC has previously flagged vote buying, insecurity, hate speech and disinformation as major threats to the credibility of the upcoming elections.
In recent contests, including the Osun governorship election, vote buying persisted despite warnings from INEC and anti-corruption agencies, prompting the commission to signal closer collaboration with the EFCC, ICPC and intelligence units to monitor surroundings of polling units and arrest suspected voters buyers and sellers.
