Nigerians in U.K. Protest Against INEC Chairman Outside Chatham House

(chairman Joash Amupitan. Image Source: Nigeria Eye)

INEC chairman Joash Amupitan was rudely yelled at by protesters in London on Thursday.

They surrounded his car outside Chatham House, where he was due to speak on a panel about Nigeria's 2027 election preparations.

The protesters, believed to be Nigerians in the diaspora, accused the electoral commission of bias in favour of President Tinubu and the ruling APC.

They called for Amupitan to resign and described INEC as a "criminal organisation."

They pointed to alleged duplicate registrations, AI generated photos and doubtful polling units in the preliminary voters' register.

The anger follows growing criticism after images and records surfaced showing suspicious entries, including photos that may have been created or altered with AI.

INEC has admitted there were irregularities and has opened investigations.

On November 9, Amupitan said INEC had removed 1,608,660 invalid registrations from the 2025 and 2026 continuous voter registration exercise.

It also took out 873 records of people confirmed dead, bringing the total deleted to 1,609,553.

He said 54 people across 10 states are suspected of being involved in the irregularities and face disciplinary action, possibly prosecution.

The problems include suspected multiple registrations, swapped photos and breaches of registration rules.

INEC says some of the questionable entries going around online date back to registrations from 2011, not just the latest exercise.

The protest also revived questions about the commission's independence, especially since Amupitan's predecessor, Mahmood Yakubu, took a diplomatic posting after leaving office.

Yakubu was named non career ambassador to Qatar after Tinubu sent his name to the Senate in November 2025.

Amupitan said he will not accept any appointment after his tenure, arguing that doing so would damage public trust in his neutrality.

He also said INEC is adding technical safeguards to stop wrong results from being uploaded to its Result Viewing Portal during the 2027 polls.

Nigerian diaspora protesters gathered outside Chatham House in London on 12 November 2026, surrounding the vehicle of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman Prof. Joash Amupitan as he departed. The demonstrators voiced concerns over alleged irregularities in the voters’ register—including claims of AI-generated entries—ahead of the 2027 elections and called for greater transparency and accountability.

— Chude (@Chude_ND1) November 12, 2026