By Faith Anisiobi, The Sight News
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has warned that Artificial Intelligence-generated disinformation and foreign information manipulation could undermine the credibility of Nigeria’s 2027 general elections, pledging stronger digital safeguards and rapid-response mechanisms to counter deepfakes and coordinated falsehoods.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, SAN, said the commission was strengthening its digital defences and developing rapid-response mechanisms to counter deepfakes, fabricated election announcements and coordinated disinformation campaigns capable of undermining public trust.
Amupitan spoke on Monday in Abuja at the opening of a two-day National Summit on Electoral Information Integrity, themed “Beyond the Ballot: AI, FIMI, and the Integrity of Nigeria’s 2027 Elections.”
He said election integrity now extended beyond securing ballot papers and protecting polling units to safeguarding the digital information environment in which voters make electoral decisions.
According to him, elections can be undermined long before voting begins through manipulated videos, cloned audio recordings, fake registration portals and fabricated announcements about election results.
He noted that the widespread availability of generative AI tools had made it easier for malicious actors to produce convincing false content at little cost, potentially triggering confusion, voter disenfranchisement and civil unrest.
The INEC chairman cited the 2023 Slovak parliamentary election, during which an AI-generated audio recording purportedly involving a political party leader discussing vote-buying circulated shortly before voting.
He said the incident demonstrated how rapidly spreading synthetic content could exploit restricted response windows and overwhelm verification efforts, stressing that public awareness alone was insufficient to counter coordinated disinformation.
Amupitan said INEC was prioritizing voter education, technological safeguards and real-time responses to emerging threats ahead of the 2027 elections.
He explained that voter education would go beyond teaching citizens how to vote to helping them identify and verify official election information, including through local-language and Pidgin English messages distributed on platforms such as WhatsApp.
The commission, he added, was strengthening its digital infrastructure, improving its capacity to detect deepfakes and establishing mechanisms to debunk false information within minutes of its emergence.
He also called for stronger collaboration with social media companies, telecommunications providers, media organizations, fact-checkers, civil society groups and security agencies, noting that INEC already had a memorandum of understanding with TikTok.
“INEC cannot police the truth alone,” he said, calling for a coordinated response to electoral information manipulation.
Amupitan urged media organisations to prioritize accuracy over speed, while asking civil society groups to help bridge digital literacy gaps, particularly in rural communities. He also called on technology partners to develop tools capable of detecting harmful synthetic content within Nigeria’s linguistic and social context.
He stressed, however, that efforts to combat misinformation must not become a justification for censorship, digital restrictions or the suppression of legitimate political dissent.
According to him, measures to address foreign information manipulation and synthetic electoral fraud must be transparent, proportionate, rights-respecting and subject to legal accountability.
“The goal is not to police opinion, regulate political debate, or restrict citizens’ freedom of expression,” he said, adding that the objective was to ensure voters made decisions based on authentic information rather than engineered deception.
The INEC chairman said the summit was expected to produce practical measures, including clear inter-agency escalation protocols, institutionalised fact-checking channels and simulation exercises to test responses to AI-driven electoral crises before the 2027 polls.
He said the commission had recently concluded a strategic communication workshop with a development partner, during which some AI-driven election-day information manipulation scenarios were simulated and addressed.
Amupitan expressed appreciation to the European Union, the International Press Centre (IPC), the Centre for Media and Society (CEMESO) and DAI for supporting the summit under the European Union Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria programme.
He said the credibility of the 2027 elections would depend not only on the physical security of polling units but also on the authenticity of the information available to voters.
The 2027 general elections are scheduled to begin on January 16 with the presidential and National Assembly polls, followed by governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections on February 6.
