By 247ureports.com
The Obidient Movement has issued a fresh, sharply worded press statement rejecting the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) plans to deploy Artificial Intelligence in results collation for the 2027 general elections, escalating a dispute the group first raised in late September and adding a new allegation: unverified rumors that the INEC Chairman met with President Tinubu and FCT Minister Nyesom Wike in France.
The New Claim
In the statement, dated October 7, 2026, and issued by the movement’s Media & Communications Directorate, the group said rumors have circulated about the relationship between INEC, the APC and the Tinubu administration, specifically alleging that the INEC Chairman was in France with Tinubu, Wike and other unnamed “election rigging political actors of the APC” to perfect rigging strategies for 2027. 247ureports.com could not independently verify this specific claim through any other source; no other outlet or official statement corroborates an INEC Chairman–Tinubu–Wike meeting in France, and the movement’s statement does not cite evidence beyond describing it as a circulating rumor.
The Core Demands
Beyond the France allegation, the statement reiterates and sharpens demands the movement first raised in a September 29 statement reacting to INEC Chairman Prof. Joash Amupitan’s disclosure, at the 24th All Nigeria Editors Conference in Enugu, that the commission had begun deploying AI tools to detect discrepancies and administrative errors in election results. The Obidient Movement insists INEC must: immediately abandon plans to use AI in election results collation; publish a transparent and independently auditable framework for any technology deployed in the electoral process; ensure results remain traceable to the polling unit and verifiable by political parties, observers and citizens; adopt five commitments made by Mundus Analytics regarding the publication of result forms EC8A through EC8E on INEC’s result viewing portal (IReV); and guarantee that voters’ will, not the preferences of political actors or INEC officials, determines election outcomes.
“The Lesson From 2023 Should Be Clear”
The statement argues that the group will not accept any arrangement that permits manipulation or manufacture of election results, pointing to multiple alterations and defacing of result sheets during the 2023 elections as evidence the problem was not a lack of technology, but what it describes as bad faith on INEC’s part. “The votes of Nigerians belong to Nigerians. No algorithm, server, software, official or political party has the right to alter the wishes of the people,” the statement reads, closing with a direct appeal to Amupitan to “retrace his steps while there is still time.”
Background: A Monthlong Dispute
This is the movement’s most forceful statement yet in an ongoing back-and-forth with INEC that began in late September. In the earlier statement, National Coordinator Yunusa Tanko — since reassigned as the movement’s Political Adviser for Northern Nigeria, with Dr. Moses Paul now serving as National Coordinator — had demanded INEC publish a comprehensive 2027 election plan detailing its technologies, procedures and safeguards, and accused the commission of attempting to shift attention from unresolved concerns about the 2023 election by introducing AI without first addressing transparency and result-transmission issues. INEC has maintained that its AI tools are intended to complement, not replace, existing electoral institutions, with automated checks remaining subject to human auditing and legal verification.
Amupitan’s position has separately drawn broader scrutiny since his October 2025 appointment by President Tinubu, with the ADC and other opposition figures previously calling for his resignation over allegations of partisan bias — claims Amupitan has consistently denied, maintaining he has remained politically neutral throughout his tenure.
What’s Unverified
As of this report, 247ureports.com has not located independent confirmation of the alleged France meeting between the INEC Chairman, Tinubu and Wike, nor a response from INEC, the Presidency, or Wike’s office to the Obidient Movement’s latest statement.
