Reported by Ariajegbe Sylvia Esezobor
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has challenged the Independent National Electoral Commission to disclose the identities of companies contracted to print sensitive materials for the 2027 general elections, warning that secrecy surrounding the contracts could undermine public confidence in the polls. Atiku, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, also demanded explanations for reported changes in key departments of the commission, insisting that Nigerians deserved assurances that the management of sensitive election materials and the deployment of officials were free from political interference.
In a statement issued on Sunday by his Director of Strategic Communication, Phrank Shaibu, for the ADC Presidential Campaign Council, Atiku said reports of changes in INEC's Electoral Operations Department required immediate clarification. According to the reports, Director Isa Magaji Gum was moved from Electoral Operations to the Voter Registry Department, while Mrs Oluyemi Titilayo Adeyemi-Showunmi was appointed to head Electoral Operations. Dr Lawrence Bayode was also identified as the head of the Information and Communication Technology department. "These departments are at the heart of election administration. INEC must explain these decisions, publish the criteria applied and show that every appointment and redeployment followed due process, was based on merit and was free from political interference," Atiku said. "Nigerians will not accept vague assurances on matters this serious."
Atiku was careful to caution against presuming that any official was compromised because of ethnicity, background or associations. However, he argued that reported political connections or concerns about the concentration of appointments required the commission to provide verifiable assurances that its impartiality would be protected. He linked the concerns to the economic policies of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's administration, arguing that public dissatisfaction with the government should not be allowed to influence the conduct of the 2027 elections. "A government that has driven millions of Nigerians into hardship must not be allowed to turn the electoral umpire into an instrument of political survival," he said. "When sensitive election departments are reshaped and major contracts are surrounded by unanswered questions, the suspicion that a failing administration is seeking every possible advantage to cling to power will only grow. INEC must dispel that suspicion through full, immediate and verifiable disclosure."
At the centre of Atiku's demands is the production of sensitive election materials. He asked INEC to confirm or deny reports that Hitech, or a company associated with it, had secured a contract to print sensitive materials for the 2027 election. He said information available to him indicated that more than half of INEC's sensitive election materials, including presidential ballot assets, might have been allocated to an undisclosed company believed to be based in France. He also questioned reports that the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Plc might handle printing for only 15 to 17 states, with private companies responsible for the remainder. "These reports demand urgent and unequivocal answers. INEC must confirm or deny them and publish the names of every company engaged, the materials and states assigned to each, the procurement method, the security clearances obtained and the safeguards governing production, storage and delivery," he said. "Nigerians should not have to depend on unnamed sources to discover who is producing their ballots."
Atiku argued that any award of sensitive material contracts to Hitech or an associated company would raise questions about INEC's neutrality, citing publicly reported business ties between the Chagoury family, which owns Hitech, and the Tinubu family. He also referenced controversies surrounding major contracts awarded to Hitech under the Tinubu administration, including the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway project, which the government said was awarded through a special procurement process. "If neither Hitech nor a company associated with it has been selected, INEC must say so clearly and put the matter beyond doubt," he said. He also called on the Central Bank of Nigeria to disclose its current printing allocations for higher-denomination banknotes and explain the roles of the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Plc and foreign contractors. He urged INEC to maximise domestic security-printing capacity and ensure that all ballot papers and result sheets were protected by a transparent chain of custody at every stage of the electoral process.
The demands come amid a broader context of preparations for the 2027 general elections, with the presidential and National Assembly elections scheduled for January 16, and the governorship and state assembly elections for February 6. INEC has said it will print all sensitive materials locally, including ballot papers and result sheets, with National Commissioner Mohammed Haruna saying the commission had inspected local printers and was satisfied with their capacity and security arrangements. Haruna said sensitive materials would be printed close to the elections and delivered to the Central Bank of Nigeria for safekeeping and distribution in the presence of civil society organisations, the media and party agents. He identified the shortened electoral timetable as a major constraint, noting that preparations were taking place under a tighter timeframe following the amendment of the electoral law, which reduced the period from one year to six months. "The problem is time," Haruna said. He said the commission had already received part of the funds required for the elections and was working on selecting printers to handle the various contracts.
The exchange reflects the charged political atmosphere ahead of the 2027 elections, in which the integrity of the electoral process has become a central issue. The National Peace Committee has recorded 60 election-related incidents within one month, including political violence, intimidation, threats and misinformation, and has warned political actors against inflammatory campaigns. INEC has established a joint financial monitoring mechanism with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit to track illegal campaign expenditure and curb vote buying. The commission has also acquired 57,000 new Bimodal Voter Accreditation System machines, introduced an enhanced electronic EC8A form and deployed artificial intelligence-driven systems to detect anomalies in database traffic and strengthen cybersecurity. For Nigerians, the debate over who prints their ballots is not a technicality but a question of whether the 2027 elections can be conducted in a manner that earns public trust. As Atiku put it, any attempt to subvert the votes of Nigerians will be met with determined resistance through the ballot and lawful civic action, and the ADC will monitor INEC's preparations and alert domestic and international observers to any lack of transparency. The coming weeks will determine whether the commission heeds the call for full disclosure or maintains its silence on the contracts and redeployments at the centre of the controversy.
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