INEC Denies Chairman Amupitan's Partisan X Account Claims

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has firmly denied allegations that its Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, operated a personal account on X, formerly Twitter, and posted comments supporting the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) during the 2023 general elections. The claims, which surfaced recently on social media, prompted widespread debate about the neutrality of Nigeria's electoral body.

The controversy began when a U.S.-based Nigerian scholar, Farooq Kperogi, published a column citing archived posts from an X account purportedly linked to Amupitan. According to the column, the account responded to a March 18, 2023, post by Dayo Israel, the APC's National Youth Leader, who celebrated electoral successes in an Igbo-dominated community. The alleged reply from the account read, "Victory is sure!" Kperogi argued that such posts, if authentic, compromised INEC's impartiality and urged Amupitan to resign. The column quickly spread online, fueling calls for accountability under hashtags like #AmupitanMustGo.

INEC rejected the claims in a statement issued Friday by Adedayo Oketola, the Chief Press Secretary and Media Adviser to the Chairman. "The allegation is...