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Mike Igini, a former Resident Electoral Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has issued a warning that the contentious Electoral Act amendment bill could pose a threat to the lives of presiding officers in the upcoming 2027 general elections.

During an appearance on The Morning Show on Arise Television, Igini expressed the concern on Wednesday.

He claims that the suggested modifications could bring back a system akin to the old “Incident Form,” especially in cases where election officials assert that there is no network connectivity for electronic results transmission.

He cautioned that this kind of situation could lead to stress at polling stations, particularly in places where voters can verify network access on their phones while the presiding officer claims the opposite.

Igini stated that this could put presiding officers, a majority of whom are part of the National Youth Service Corps, at risk from disgruntled voters.

He observed that it is not the children of political elites who are assigned to polling units, but rather youth corps members who take on the majority of election-day duties.

The former commissioner also mentioned previous elections, claiming that there had been instances of collusion involving electoral officials, including cases where the serial numbers of election result sheets were tampered with.

He raised doubts about how officials would ascertain genuine results when duplicated serial numbers are submitted to INEC’s Result Viewing Portal (iReV).

Igini said: “The consequence, the danger of what have been passed is that we are bringing back what they call “incident form”. This is another version of incident form because there will be no network.

“The danger of what is going to happen in 2027 are as follows – the polling units presiding over officers’ lives are going to be in danger. This is because when Nigerians are gathered and the results of polling units are being announced, everyone can look at their telephone and see network, but if the presiding officer says there is no network, you are going to put the life of that presiding officer in danger.

“Meanwhile, the children of all the political elites are not going to be at the polling unit. It’s the youth corps members that are going to be faced with this clear danger.

“You know that in 2015 and 2019 there were evidence of collusion of some of our staff, when they gave the serial number of ECA in certain polling units for people to print, where you will now have the same serial number and the essential feature. And where they are transmitted to the iReV, which one are you going to pick?”

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