As Nigeria enters a decisive electoral window, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has urged security agencies to adopt robust, proactive strategies to safeguard upcoming electoral activities, ranging from multiple bye-elections to the Anambra State Governorship Election and the nationwide Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise.
The INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, made the call at the second quarterly meeting of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES), held at the Commission’s Headquarters in Abuja on Friday, 27th June 2025.
Laying out the Commission’s calendar for the next six months, Prof. Yakubu stressed that three major activities demand heightened security coordination. These include:
Bye-elections to fill vacancies in 16 constituencies across 12 states, scheduled for Saturday, 16th August 2025.
Court-ordered re-run elections in Enugu South I State Constituency (Enugu State) and Ghari/Tsanyawa State Constituency (Kano State)—previously disrupted by violence.
The Anambra State Governorship Election, slated for 8th November 2025, and the resumption of CVR in the state from 8th to 17th July 2025 across all 326 Wards.
The INEC Chairman disclosed that, for the August bye-elections alone, the deployment footprint spans 32 Local Government Areas, 356 Wards, and nearly 7,000 Polling Units. He reaffirmed that delimitation details for planning and operational purposes have been shared with all relevant agencies.
While acknowledging a relatively calmer security climate in Anambra compared to the turbulent run-up to the last Governorship poll four years ago, the Chairman advised security agencies to use the voter registration period as a live rehearsal to "fine-tune preparations" ahead of November. “Detailed information on the CVR centres is enclosed in your folders for this meeting,” he noted, encouraging a coordinated, intelligence-led security posture.
Prof. Yakubu also disclosed that nationwide CVR will resume in August, beginning with online pre-registration on the 18th and followed by in-person registration at INEC State and Local Government offices from the 25th. The full details of this exercise, he said, will be shared with security agencies in due course.
Emphasising the need for vigilance, he noted that specific security concerns raised by political parties, civil society organisations, and the media had been documented and would be discussed with the Committee for actionable follow-up.
In a show of solidarity, the National Security Adviser (NSA) and Co-Chair of ICCES, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, represented by Director of Internal Security, Mr. Hassan Yahaya Abdullahi, commended INEC’s steadfast commitment to electoral integrity.
Ribadu assured that the security community is actively enhancing its readiness posture. “ICCES security agencies will intensify intelligence efforts to monitor and pre-empt threats, especially in states prone to infiltration by subversive non-state actors who may be exploited by desperate political interests,” he warned.
He emphasised that dialogue with political leaders remains essential to cooling tensions ahead of the polls, stating, “Political actors must conduct themselves with decorum and respect for the democratic process. Electoral violence and malpractices have no place in our democracy.”
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