Precious Nwonu, Enugu

The Independent National Electoral Commission has announced that nationwide collection of Permanent Voter Cards will begin on Friday, October 9, 2026, ahead of the 2027 general elections.

The INEC Chairman, Prof Joash Amupitan, disclosed this on Monday at a strategic workshop for media executives organised by the commission in partnership with Development Alternatives Incorporated and the Nigerian Guild of Editors in Abuja.

Amupitan said the National Register of Voters had grown to more than 103 million following the commission’s three-phase Continuous Voter Registration exercise.

According to him, more than 10.6 million Nigerians submitted applications during the registration exercise.

He added that INEC had completed the public display of the Preliminary Register of Voters, allowing citizens to raise claims and objections, as well as the final biometric clean-up of the register using its Automated Biometric Identification System.

The INEC chairman said the commencement of PVC collection was a major step in preparations for the 2027 elections, stressing the commission’s commitment to conducting a transparent and technology-driven electoral process.

Amupitan said INEC would continue to improve the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System and the INEC Result Viewing Portal to strengthen the credibility of the voting and result-transmission processes.

He identified public confidence as a crucial component of electoral integrity.

“The ultimate arbiter of electoral integrity is public trust,” he said.

The INEC chairman also called for closer cooperation between the commission, media organisations, civil society groups and other stakeholders to improve the flow of reliable electoral information.

He said the commission was willing to engage editors on operational concerns and provide timely information on developments to reduce the space for misinformation.

Amupitan urged media organisations to establish digital fact-checking desks and said INEC would provide editors with channels to verify information concerning field incidents, logistics and security developments.

He also proposed a sustained feedback mechanism between INEC and the Nigerian Guild of Editors to assess preparations and address emerging challenges throughout the 2027 electoral cycle.

INEC Tasks Media On PVC Information

The Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Victoria Eta-Messi, urged the media to provide citizens with accurate information as PVC collection gets underway.

Eta-Messi identified misinformation and disinformation as factors contributing to declining public participation in the electoral process.

She called on media organisations to support voter education by ensuring that information reaching the public was accurate, timely and properly verified.

### INEC Proposes 24-Hour Verification System

The Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Adedayo Oketola, said the workshop was designed to strengthen communication between the commission and the media ahead of the elections.

He said one of the objectives was to rebuild institutional trust through open dialogue between INEC and media gatekeepers.

Oketola said another objective was to tackle information disorder by developing a system that would allow newsrooms to quickly verify electoral information with the commission.

He said INEC was seeking “seamless 24-hour fact-verification loops between newsrooms and INEC so that speed would not come at the expense of accuracy.”

He added that the initiative would also promote shared responsibility among the media, civil society and electoral institutions through ethical reporting, conflict-sensitive journalism and civic education.

‘Verify Before You Amplify’

The Executive Director of the Centre for Media and Society, Dr Akin Akingbulu, said the country was approaching a critical period in its democratic development as preparations for the 2027 elections intensify.

Akingbulu noted that electoral information was already influencing public discussions across traditional and digital media platforms.

He urged editors to take seriously their responsibility as gatekeepers of electoral information, particularly amid the growing use of artificial intelligence and the spread of manipulated content.

He stressed the need for journalists to authenticate information before publication and urged newsrooms to be cautious about deepfakes and unofficial election results.

“Verification is a two-way street,” Akingbulu said, adding, “Verify before you amplify.”

NGE Calls For Balanced Election Coverage

The President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, Eze Anaba, described the workshop as timely as the country moves closer to the 2027 general elections.

Anaba said credible elections depended not only on citizens casting their ballots but also on their confidence that their votes would be properly counted and that electoral institutions would operate fairly.

He urged editors and journalists to uphold accuracy, fairness, balance and the public interest in their coverage of the elections.

The NGE president also called for stronger access to credible and timely information from INEC to enable the media to effectively inform voters throughout the electoral process.