By Toyosi Kareem.
After successfully scaling through a rigorous screening session, Professor Joash Amupitan, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), has been confirmed by the Senate as the new Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The Senators gave positive nod to Amupitan’s confirmation at plenary on Thursday, after hours of grilling by the lawmakers. The new Chairman succeeds Mahmood Yakubu, who led the commission from 2015 to 2025.
Amupitan, an indigene of Kogi State, explained to the legislators that contrary to insinuations, he was never part of the legal battle that followed the last presidential election which ushered President Tinubu into office.
“I did not lead the legal team of President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal.
“I did not appear at the tribunal either at the Court of Appeal or at the Supreme Court.”
He pledged to ensure a major audit of the system, focusing on logistics and technology, and pledged to collaborate with key agencies.
“It is not INEC responsibility alone. We have the other agencies like NCC (Nigerian Communications Commission), NIMC (National Identity Management Commission), and the service providers that we have to work together.
“This is to ensure that we give Nigerians the technology that everybody will be happy about.”
He described logistics as a crucial problem to tackle, especially the reliance on third-party vendors for transporting sensitive election materials.
“We rely on third-party logistics to transport sensitive election materials,” he explained, noting that many INEC vehicles are old and unreliable. “When they drop the materials, they don’t even wait to bring the materials back.”
Responding to questions on the challenges of the last general election, Amupitan offered his perspective on the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV).
He pointed out that before the election, there was a lack of clarity regarding the portal’s function, which was only resolved by the Supreme Court’s pronouncement.
“Not until the Supreme Court came out to say that IReV was not an electronic collation system, that issue was not properly thrashed out before the election,” he said, adding that the laws passed by the Senate had not done away with manual collation. He, however, agreed that IReV was designed to provide necessary checks and balances.
Amupitan also emphasised the need to focus on the human element within the commission.
“One of the things that I will do is to work out an internal mechanism that we can use to train the behaviour of humans,” he said. “I’m taking this position on trust and the people who I’m going to work with, they must also appreciate the fact that they are there on trust.”
He reiterated his support for establishing an Electoral Offence Commission to investigate and prosecute perpetrators of electoral crimes.
Speaking on behalf of the Kogi senators, Senator Sunday Karimi commended the nomination, noting it was the first time the state was producing an INEC chairman. He urged the Senate to support Amupitan, saying he “would not disappoint Nigerians.”
In his closing remarks, the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, thanked his colleagues for their thoroughness.
“I wish Prof. Amupitan well and pray that his services will improve the electoral process, lead to more transparency and ensure that every vote counts and that the winners are truly the ones that are announced,” Akpabio concluded.
