The Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) says the three phases of the Continuous Voter Registration, (CVR) have produced 10,772,421 new registrations, subject to verification through the Automated Biometric Identification System.
INEC Chairman, Professor Joash Amupitan, disclosed this on Monday, September 28, 2026, in Kaduna, at the Commission’s North-West Zonal Interactive Meeting with Staff and Readiness Assessment for the 2027 General Election.
Amupitan said the six-zone national tour was designed to assess the Commission’s preparedness, identify operational challenges and develop practical solutions ahead of the 2027 elections.
He stressed that the success of elections was largely determined at the grassroots, particularly at Local Government Areas, Registration Area Centres and polling units.
The INEC Chairman directed officials to identify and address practical challenges confronting election administration in their respective areas before election day. He also directed officials to eliminate bottlenecks in the distribution of Permanent Voter Cards at the Local Government Area level, to prevent eligible citizens from being disenfranchised by logistical challenges.
Amupitan warned electoral personnel against partisan conduct and administrative negligence, noting that neutrality and professionalism would be critical to sustaining public confidence in the electoral process. He further disclosed that INEC was refining its technological systems, including voter verification, result transmission and Result Management Systems, with the recently introduced eEC8A among the systems being implemented.
The INEC Chairman added that the Commission was adopting a “Zero-Failure” approach to election logistics, covering the early deployment of materials, transportation, security coordination and training of ad-hoc personnel.
Also speaking, the Supervising National Commissioner for Kaduna, Mallam Kudu Haruna, said the zonal engagements were designed to enable the Commission’s leadership to interact directly with staff across the country and assess their preparedness for the 2027 polls.
Haruna said the Kaduna engagement commenced with a courtesy visit by the INEC Chairman to the Emir of Zazzau and Chairman of the Kaduna State Council of Traditional Rulers.
He said the visit provided an opportunity to brief the traditional institution on preparations for the elections and seek its support in mobilising eligible Nigerians to participate in the electoral process.
Haruna also said the collection of newly issued Permanent Voter Cards would commence as scheduled, urging traditional rulers to encourage eligible citizens to collect their cards and exercise their constitutional right to vote.
Meanwhile, INEC Director of Planning and Monitoring, Helen Ajayi, said the zonal exercise was aimed at assessing the preparedness of states and identifying operational challenges requiring attention before the elections.
She said the meetings would also ensure that staff across the zone remained committed to the Commission’s Code of Conduct.
Representatives of the Voter Education and Publicity, Voter Registry, ICT, Human Resources, and Election and Operations departments also made presentations on their areas of responsibility.
The meeting later proceeded to state-by-state situation reports, with representatives from states across the North-West presenting their levels of preparedness and highlighting operational and logistical challenges ahead of the 2027 General Election.
