Independent National Electoral Commission chair owns up to 2023 result upload errors, asks Nigerians to trust him

The chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Joash Amupitan, has acknowledged that inaccurate results were uploaded to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) during the 2023 general election.

Speaking on Thursday at a high-level dialogue in London, Amupitan said the core problem lay at the collation centres rather than the polling units, Peoples Gazette reported. He added that the 2023 controversies left the commission with a trust deficit it has yet to recover from.

“In 2023, there were instances of inaccurate results or results with over-voting being uploaded onto IReV,” he said.

He said INEC has since built strict validation safeguards into its system. “If a result is not accurate at the polling unit, it will not go to IReV at all,” he stated.

Even so, he urged Nigerians to trust his leadership to deliver free, fair and credible elections in 2027.

“Nigerians must trust me because I have conducted off-cycle elections, and observers agree that the recent election in Osun State marked a clear improvement,” he said.