Professor Pat Utomi, a member of the Movement for Credible Elections, has warned the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that stopping people from using tools that make voting open would be criminal conduct.
He spoke on Arise News on Tuesday in a discussion on opposition cooperation ahead of the 2027 general election.
He called for stronger measures to make elections in Nigeria more transparent, including the use of body cameras and live streaming at every polling booth across the country.
Utomi said many people in the United Kingdom and the United States have no idea who chairs the electoral commission. In those countries, he said, results reach the public through the media watching the polls, not through one official name that voters must know.
He said Nigeria should put technology at the heart of the vote. He called for body cams and live streams from every polling booth in the country so citizens can see what happens as ballots are cast and counted.
He said that if INEC tells Nigerians they cannot bring devices that make elections transparent, then the commission is acting like criminals who do not want open elections. He added that if the commission refuses those tools, Nigerians should take over their country.
Utomi said election watch should not rest only on party agents. He called the agent system a weak arrangement. A party that cannot place agents in every polling station, he said, is open to results being written where it has no one present.
He said technology can close that gap and give citizens a direct view of polling units. Opposition groups, he added, are already working together so people know their votes can count. If citizens believe that and turn out in large numbers, he said a police force of about 300,000 cannot stop the will of the people.
Utomi also attacked the use of public money for campaigns. He said politicians treat state coffers as campaign cash and called that theft. He said he wants such politicians sent to jail and plans to take the matter to the international community. Those who do not have that public loot, he said, must find creative ways to stop elections from being abused.
The remarks come as parties and civic groups prepare for the 2027 polls. President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the African Democratic Congress, and former Anambra governor Peter Obi of the Nigeria Democratic Congress are among those expected in the presidential race.
