Follow Us on Google
The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Joash Amupitan, has denied operating an X account allegedly used to express support for President Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC) during the 2023 general election.
Amupitan said he had never owned or operated an account on the social media platform, insisting that the allegation was false and intended to undermine his credibility and that of the electoral commission ahead of the 2027 elections.
He spoke on Thursday during a dialogue at Chatham House in London, organised in partnership with the Kimpact Development Initiative, with the theme, “Nigeria’s 2027 Elections: Democratic Trajectory and Regional Stability Beyond the Ballot”.
The controversy followed allegations that an X account with the handle @joashamupitan belonged to the INEC chairman and had expressed support for the APC during the 2023 elections.
The account reportedly responded to a post by the APC National Youth Leader, Dayo Israel, celebrating the party’s victory in a predominantly Igbo community in Lagos, with the words, “Victory is sure”.
However, INEC had dismissed the allegation as fabricated, describing it as an attempt to damage the reputation of its chairman and weaken public confidence in the commission.
Responding to a question on whether an independent investigation had established that he was not behind the account, Amupitan said the matter had been reported to the Department of State Services (DSS) and the office of the Inspector-General of Police.
“We have an independent report, and the matter was also reported to the DSS as well as to the IG,” he said.
He maintained that he had never operated an X account and explained that his attempt to contact the platform over the allegation was unsuccessful because he was not a registered user.
“I never had an X account. I tried to get in touch with X, but there’s no way if you don’t have an account,” he said.
Amupitan added that some civil society organisations had also indicated interest in investigating the allegation.
“I have my Yahoo mail. I check Yahoo mail. It was never my account. And that is the truth,” he said.
The INEC chairman suggested that the controversy was part of a wider attempt to discredit him and the commission, linking its emergence to a court ruling involving the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and the interpretation of the status quo ante bellum order.
“Remember the background. That issue came up when the court ruled that ADC had an issue, and the concept of status quo ante bellum. I don’t want to go back into it. But at the same time, it came about that time,” he said.
He argued that those seeking to undermine the commission had chosen to target its chairman in a bid to erode public confidence in the institution.
“The only way that people could bring down an institution was to say, ‘Oh, this person,’” he said.
Amupitan also dismissed other allegations against him, including claims that he was a member of President Tinubu’s legal team and that he had made false claims about his educational background.
He said the allegations had been investigated by the DSS and the police and found to be untrue.
“There were several accusations before then. For instance, that I was a member of the legal team of the president, that I said I went to school, but that is not true. They were investigated and discovered not to be true. So there were also investigations from DSS, from the police. And those things were not true,” he said.
Despite the controversy, Amupitan expressed confidence in INEC’s preparations for the 2027 general election, saying the commission was working to deliver an exercise Nigerians would be proud of.
