By Emmanuel Thomas l Friday, Oct. 16, 2026
LAGOS — Former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Dr. Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, has called on political parties in Nigeria to immediately establish independent structures for gathering and authenticating election results ahead of the 2027 general elections, insisting that accountability begins before election day.
Speaking on the need for systemic electoral reforms and vigilant political monitoring, the senior lawyer stated that political parties have a duty to actively monitor the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) rather than passively waiting for final declarations.
”If INEC knows it is being watched, it will be careful,” Agbakoba remarked, emphasizing that independent public and institutional scrutiny is the most effective safeguard against electoral irregularities.
”Stop Waiting for Trucks of Results”
Agbakoba questioned the prevailing habit among political actors who wait until election results are officially declared before scrambling to assemble evidence for judicial challenges.
”I do not understand why everyone seems to be waiting for the Independent National Electoral Commission to deliver ‘trucks and trucks of results’ before thinking about how to challenge those results,” he said.
He stressed that political parties bear the primary legal responsibility to deploy capable polling agents across the country’s over 176,000 polling units to collect signed polling unit result sheets (Form EC8A) and cross-reference them with uploads on INEC’s Result Viewing (IReV) portal.
According to him, showing up in court to request INEC to produce its own records is a weak legal strategy. Under Nigerian law, official acts of INEC carry a presumption of regularity; however, a party that independently gathers and authenticates records from the same source can effectively rebut that legal presumption in court.
While acknowledging reports that some political organizations are beginning to organize independent result collation mechanisms, the former NBA chief urged them to follow through diligently.
”Preparation cannot begin after an election dispute has already arisen,” Agbakoba noted. “I want 2027 to be a departure from the past. But I am hopeful, not certain. The work has to be done before election day.”
Nigeria’s post-election landscape has historically been characterized by prolonged legal battles. Following the 2023 general elections, major opposition political parties spent months in tribunal proceedings demanding that INEC release certified true copies (CTCs) of electoral documents and raw data from the IReV portal and Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS). Legal scholars and election observers have consistently argued that reliance on post-election judicial remedies burdens the court system and weakens public trust in democracy.
Agbakoba’s intervention comes at a critical time as stakeholders debate the legal boundaries around election result reporting. While INEC retains the exclusive statutory mandate to declare official election winners, legal experts maintain that public access to IReV data allows citizens, civil society organizations, and media houses to analyze and audit public records in real time.
By building robust digital and physical collation infrastructure prior to 2027, political parties can establish parallel, verified records—thereby compelling INEC to maintain transparency throughout the collation pipeline.
