Rufai Oseni Urges Nigerians to Monitor Results Ahead of 2027 Elections

Rufai Oseni, who co-anchors Arise TV's Morning Show, has urged Nigerians to closely follow election results and establish independent monitoring systems ahead of the 2027 general elections. On Wednesday's programme, Oseni said that while the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is the only body with the legal power to declare final winners, citizens are fully entitled to watch, verify, and separately collate figures that are uploaded. "Monitor the results," he said, noting that people cannot make official announcements but can still keep track. He advised them to create their own election monitoring and collation centres, gathering information as it appears on IReV and comparing it with their own records. "Please do it," he added. Oseni cited earlier technical faults and administrative shortcomings, such as problems with the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal during regional elections and the unauthorized announcement of results in the 2023 Adamawa governorship contest. He argued these cases demonstrated why independent scrutiny is important for protecting electoral integrity. He called on INEC to make the prompt upload of polling unit records (Form EC8A) mandatory, together with higher collation sheets (Forms EC8B and EC8C), so the public can review and verify them. Oseni repeated that only INEC can declare a result, while citizens can monitor, cross-check, and produce reports from their own analysis. He urged voters to demand complete transparency and open protocols from the commission as it prepares for the 2027 national election cycle.