The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has established an artificial intelligence (AI) unit to monitor digital threats, detect deepfakes and prevent the manipulation of Nigeria’s 2027 general elections.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, disclosed this on Wednesday, 14 October 2026, in Abuja while delivering the keynote address at the Artificial Intelligence and Democracy Forum 2026, organised in collaboration with Yiaga Africa.
Speaking at the forum, themed “Safeguarding the 2027 General Elections in the Age of Artificial Intelligence”, Amupitan said the elections would be determined by Nigerians, not algorithms.
“Algorithms will not, and must never, decide the 2027 vote,” he said, warning that AI-generated videos, cloned audio recordings and other forms of synthetic media could spread false information about candidates, election postponements and electoral procedures.
He noted that malicious actors could impersonate electoral officials to circulate fake guidelines, announce unauthorised results or discourage voter participation.
To address these threats, Amupitan said INEC had established the AI unit within its Information and Communication Technology Directorate. The unit would deploy digital monitoring tools, deepfake detection software and data analytics to identify threats and attempts to manipulate electoral information.
He stressed that critical electoral decisions, result collation, voter accreditation and candidate qualification would not be fully automated or delegated to autonomous systems.
“Human accountability, statutory oversight and judicial review will remain paramount at every stage of the electoral chain,” he said.
The chairman said INEC was also developing a digital strategy to monitor online information and collaborating with technology platforms to facilitate the rapid identification and labelling of AI-generated electoral content.
He noted that AI could improve election administration through logistics planning, voter education and security monitoring.
According to him, geospatial analytics could help deploy personnel, vehicles, boats and sensitive materials to 176,846 polling units before 7.30 a.m. on election day by analysing traffic, weather, road conditions and security incidents.
AI could also help identify inconsistencies in result sheets uploaded through the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV), while human officials would retain oversight of result collation.
Amupitan said that AI-enhanced Automated Biometric Identification Systems (ABIS) were helping detect duplicate facial and fingerprint records in the National Register of Voters, which contains more than 103 million records.
He said the commission had digitised candidate nominations, processed more than 15,000 nominations across 22 political parties and introduced online voter registration. Additional Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) units had also been procured, with consignments already arriving.
The chairman said 10 of the 14 major operational milestones under the Electoral Act 2026 had been completed.
He urged technology companies, political parties, the media, civil society organisations and security agencies to cooperate in protecting electoral integrity.
He also called on platforms, including Meta, X, Google, TikTok and Telegram, to curb deceptive synthetic media, enforce political advertising disclaimers and restrict discriminatory micro-targeting.
Amupitan further advocated an Ethical AI Code of Conduct for political parties and candidates, stronger digital verification by media organisations and increased voter education to help Nigerians identify misinformation.
The two-day forum brought together electoral commissioners, political parties, civil society groups, security agencies, technology firms and media practitioners from across Africa, including Abdoulaye Sylla, Chairman of Senegal’s Electoral Commission.
