The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has partnered with three financial security agencies to track money spent by politicians ahead of the 16 January, 2027 general election.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, made this known yesterday, 5 October, 2026, in Abuja at a strategic workshop organised by the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) in collaboration with the electoral body.
The joint team includes the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU).
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The agencies will monitor financial transactions by candidates to detect illegal campaign funding and prevent vote buying around polling units during the poll.
Amupitan said the commission set up the monitoring mechanism to stop money from deciding electoral outcomes. He stated that politicians who break the Electoral Act will face arrest and prosecution, insisting that citizens must choose leaders based on personal conviction.
Voter register reaches 103 million
The electoral body also confirmed that Nigeria’s voter register has increased to over 103 million people.
The growth followed the completion of the three-phase Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise, which recorded 10,772,421 new registrants. Amupitan broke down the new registrations:
Phase I (August 25 to December 10, 2025): 2,611,266 voters
Phase II (January 5 to April 17, 2026): 4,121,835 voters
Phase III (May 11 to July 26, 2026): 3,867,997 voters
INEC conducted the CVR under Section 10 of the Electoral Act 2026. The commission has completed the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) cleanup—a digital process used to remove duplicate entries—and displayed the preliminary list for public claims and objections.
With this step completed, the commission has executed eight out of the 14 major activities listed on its 2027 election timetable.
New technology and security framework
To improve poll administration, INEC purchased 57,000 new Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devices. BVAS is the electronic machine used to verify voters through fingerprints and facial recognition before casting ballots.
The commission plans to use these extra devices to start voting at the same time across every polling unit in the country.
Amupitan stated that the agency is applying lessons learned from recent off-cycle governorship elections to upgrade logistics, staff performance, and technical tools.
Addressing political conduct, INEC warned parties and campaign teams against using hate speech, violence, or political thugs. Through the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES), the commission set up an early-warning framework to track political threats and sanction offending candidates.
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