{"id":21063,"date":"2025-10-17T07:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T06:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.funminews.com\/?p=21063"},"modified":"2025-10-17T12:00:48","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T11:00:48","slug":"amupitan-to-audit-2023-elections-says-inec-must-earn-public-trust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/17\/amupitan-to-audit-2023-elections-says-inec-must-earn-public-trust\/","title":{"rendered":"INEC in the Hot Seat: Amupitan to Audit Controversial 2023 Elections Amid Growing Outrage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ABUJA, Nigeria (FN)<\/strong> \u2014 Nigeria\u2019s newly appointed electoral chief, Professor Joash Amupitan, pledged Thursday to launch a full audit of the Independent National Electoral Commission\u2019s operations, focusing on logistics used during the contentious 2023 general elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking during his Senate confirmation hearing, Amupitan said the audit would identify operational failures and guide reforms aimed at restoring public confidence in the electoral process. He emphasized collaboration with civil society and lawmakers to implement corrective measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amupitan, a constitutional law expert and former university dean, outlined a reform agenda that includes creating an internal ethics committee, enforcing accountability protocols, and deploying advanced technology \u2014 including drones \u2014 to improve election logistics and security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Referencing a Supreme Court ruling, Amupitan noted that INEC\u2019s Results Viewing Portal was not part of the official collation system, a detail he said was poorly communicated to voters. He described this as a critical lapse that undermined transparency during the last election cycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTrust is the foundation of credible elections,\u201d Amupitan told lawmakers. \u201cWe must hold ourselves accountable and pursue every complaint with seriousness and resolve.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also proposed the establishment of an Electoral Offences Commission, arguing that INEC lacks the institutional capacity to investigate and prosecute electoral crimes. Legislative support, he said, would be essential to empower such a body with forensic capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amupitan announced plans to introduce a whistleblower policy to expose misconduct within the commission and among election stakeholders. He said the initiative would be backed by legal safeguards to protect informants and ensure follow-through on credible reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On election security, Amupitan vowed to reach all voting areas, including remote regions, using enhanced logistics and aerial surveillance. \u201cNo eligible voter will be left behind,\u201d he said, adding that coordination with national security agencies would be intensified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also called for expanded civic education to strengthen democratic participation, promising aggressive outreach campaigns and capacity-building for election officials and volunteers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Addressing the issue of real-time result transmission, Amupitan said legislative clarity was needed to resolve ambiguities in the Electoral Act. He pledged to streamline election timelines and enforce strict financial oversight to ensure resources are used efficiently and transparently.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ABUJA, Nigeria (FN) \u2014 Nigeria\u2019s newly appointed electoral chief, Professor Joash Amupitan, pledged Thursday to launch a full audit of the Independent National Electoral Commission\u2019s operations, focusing on logistics used during the contentious 2023 general elections. Speaking during his Senate confirmation hearing, Amupitan said the audit would identify operational failures and guide reforms aimed at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21054,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-naija-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Professor-Joash-Ojo-Amupitan.jpg?fit=850%2C550&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21063"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21126,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21063\/revisions\/21126"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}