The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has charged editors across the country to resist premature declaration of election results and strengthen fact-checking and digital verification mechanisms ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The commission warned that publishing or amplifying privately collated results before their official declaration could create conflicting narratives, confuse voters and undermine confidence in the outcome of the elections.
In a statement signed by the chief press secretary/special adviser on Media to the INEC chairman, Adedayo Oketola, the commission said its chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan (SAN), represented by the resident electoral commissioner for Enugu State, Dr Chukwuemeka Chukwu, gave the charge yesterday at the 22nd All Nigeria Editors Conference (ANEC) 2026 in Enugu.
Amupitan, who spoke on the theme, “The Ballot, the Media and the Task of Keeping Democracy Alive,” said the emergence of generative artificial intelligence, voice cloning, deepfake videos and automated bot networks had created new challenges for election reporting and information management.
He warned that malicious actors could use the technologies to manufacture convincing videos of electoral officials, clone the voices of INEC officials and produce manipulated result sheets designed to appear authentic.
“We have moved far beyond simple political bias, hyperbole, or unverified rumours into an era of synthetically manufactured reality. Generative artificial intelligence, voice cloning, deepfake video synthesis, and automated bot networks have democratised mass deception,” Amupitan said.
According to him, the danger posed by synthetic disinformation goes beyond the spread of individual falsehoods, as repeated exposure to convincing fake content could make citizens doubt even genuine information released by legitimate authorities.
“When deepfakes render lies believable, real truth is greeted with skepticism. Cynicism replaces civic engagement, leading voters to ask: Why stand in line for hours if the outcome is already manipulated on a screen? That mental retreat is where democracy begins to decay,” he said.
The INEC chairman therefore urged editors to institutionalise specialised fact-checking desks in their newsrooms and integrate digital verification tools into their daily editorial processes.
He also called for the use of deepfake detection software and forensic image-analysis tools to authenticate election-related photographs, videos, audio recordings and documents before publication.
Amupitan said editors must pay particular attention to information circulating on social media, where manipulated content could be widely distributed before journalists had an opportunity to establish its authenticity.
He further cautioned media organisations against publishing or amplifying privately collated election results ahead of official declarations by INEC.
“Let’s resist premature result declarations. Under the Electoral Act, statutory authority to declare election results rests exclusively with INEC,” he said.
The chairman warned that unverified figures released by political actors and circulated on social media could create competing versions of election outcomes and undermine confidence in the official results.
He urged editors to ensure that their platforms did not become channels for giving institutional credibility to unverified figures, fake result sheets or manipulated videos.
“The pressure on modern newsrooms to be first is immense. But in national elections, it is vastly more important to be right than to be first,” Amupitan said.
He added that rushing to publish unverified election claims could cause damage to public confidence and peace that would be difficult to reverse.
The INEC chairman called on the Nigerian Guild of Editors and media organisations to build a collaborative mechanism for identifying and responding to election-related disinformation before, during and after the 2027 elections.
He said the media had become an important component of election security because political contests were no longer fought only at polling units, but also in the information space.
“We should use our platforms to educate citizens on spotting synthetic content, fake letterheads, and algorithmically generated rage-bait,” he said.
