The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Joash Amupitan, has denied operating an X account allegedly used to express support for President Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress during the 2023 general election.
Amupitan also disclosed that the matter had been reported to the Department of State Services and the office of the Inspector-General of Police and an independent report has been obtained over the controversy.
He spoke on Thursday during a dialogue at Chatham House in London, organised in partnership with the Kimpact Development Initiative, with the theme, “Nigeria’s 2027 Elections: Democratic Trajectory and Regional Stability Beyond the Ballot.”
Responding to a question on whether an independent investigation had established that he was not behind the account, the INEC chairman said, “We have an independent report and the matter was also reported to the DSS as well as to the IG.”
He insisted that he had never operated an X account, explaining that his attempts to contact the social media platform to address the allegation were unsuccessful because he was not a user.
“I never had an X account. I tried to get in touch with X, but there’s no way if you don’t have an account,” he said.
He added that some civil society organisations had also indicated interest in investigating the allegation.
“I have my Yahoo mail. I check Yahoo mail. It was never my account. And that is the truth,” he said.
Amupitan added that the controversy emerged around the time of a court ruling concerning the African Democratic Congress and the interpretation of the status quo ante bellum order.
“Remember the background. That issue came up when the court ruled that ADC had an issue, and the concept of status quo ante bellum. I don’t want to go back into it. But at the same time, it came about that time,” he said.
He suggested that the timing of the controversy was part of attempts to discredit him and undermine the electoral commission, adding, “The only way that people could bring down an institution was to say, ‘Oh, this person.’”
The INEC chairman also dismissed other allegations previously made against him, including claims that he was a member of the legal team of Tinubu and that he had made false claims about his educational background.
He said investigations by the DSS and the police had established that the allegations were unfounded.
“There were several accusations before then. For instance, that I was a member of the legal team of the President, that I said I went to school, but that is not true. They were investigated and discovered not to be true. So there were also investigations from DSS, from the police. And those things were not true,” he said.
Amupitan expressed confidence in the commission’s preparations for the 2027 general elections, saying the exercise would be one Nigerians would be proud of.
The controversy followed allegations that an X account bearing the handle @joashamupitan belonged to the electoral chief and had expressed support for the APC during the 2023 general election.
The account reportedly replied to a post by former APC National Youth Leader, Dayo Israel, celebrating the party’s victory in a predominantly Igbo community in Lagos, with the words, “Victory is sure.”
The development raised questions about Amupitan’s impartiality as chairman of the commission responsible for conducting Nigeria’s elections.
However, INEC had dismissed the allegations as fabricated and intended to undermine the credibility of the chairman and the commission.
In a statement issued on April 10, 2026, the chairman’s Chief Press Secretary and Media Adviser, Adedayo Oketola, said fraudulent accounts had allegedly been created in Amupitan’s name to mislead and defraud members of the public.
INEC said it was working with security agencies and cyber-intelligence units to identify those behind the suspected impersonation.
Meanwhile, an investigation by the International Centre for Investigative Reporting, republished by FactCheckHub, reportedly found similarities between partially hidden email and phone details displayed by X for account recovery and contact information associated with Amupitan.
The report, however, noted that conclusively establishing who operated the account would require access to records held by X, including login history, IP addresses and device information, which were not publicly available.
INEC’s Director of Information and Communication Technology, Lawrence Bayode, had also said the commission was yet to obtain verified forensic evidence linking Amupitan to the account and was considering an independent forensic examination.
