Posted by Chinenye on Wed 14th Oct, 2026 - tori.ng
A senior lawyer has sent a strong message to political parties ahead of the 2027 elections.
(Dr. Olisa Agbakoba. Photo by Vanguard News)
Senior Advocate Olisa Agbakoba says political parties that cannot collect and keep their own election results have no business on the ballot.
Speaking on an online interview, on Wednesday, he said parties that want to challenge INEC's declarations in 2027 must bring their own authenticated results, gathered by agents at polling units.
"If you're not ready to monitor the elections right across Nigeria, don't go on the ballot. Or don't complain," he said.
He criticised parties that go to court to force INEC to release results from its Result Viewing Portal, IReV, calling the habit "lazy."
Party agents already sign the polling unit result sheets, Form EC8A, so they should keep their own copies, he said.
He explained that the law presumes INEC acts properly, and only credible evidence can overturn that presumption.
A party with its own verified records can show the court something different from INEC's figures.
A party without records has no grounds to question INEC, he said.
Agbakoba said this approach has not been tested in past presidential petitions, but he hopes it will be in 2027.
He expects parties to use AI tools to pull results from IReV quickly.
He said that could push INEC to be more accurate because it would know it is being watched.
On publishing results, he cited the 1984 NUJ v. FEDECO case, which he said confirmed that anyone may publish results already in the public domain.
He said INEC's exclusive power is to declare the winner.
He also pointed out that the Electoral Act penalises publishing fake results, which implies that genuine results can be published.
For media houses using AI to tally results, he said they must take the figures from IReV and clearly credit it.