The Obidient Movement has rejected the planned deployment of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the collation of results for the 2027 general elections, accusing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of introducing an untested technology into a sensitive part of the electoral process.
The movement said the proposal was particularly troubling because INEC had acknowledged that its AI governance framework was yet to be finalised.
In a statement signed by its Media and Communications Directorate, Onyeka Dike, on Wednesday, the group said Nigerians could not be subjected to another electoral experiment after the credibility crisis that followed the 2023 elections.
It demanded that INEC immediately abandon the plan and instead establish a transparent, auditable and verifiable results-management process.
“The Obidient Movement rejects, in the strongest terms, the continued insistence by INEC that Artificial Intelligence will be deployed in the collation of election results in 2027, even as the Commission admits that its AI governance framework has not been finalised,” the statement said.
The movement argued that INEC should be concentrating on rebuilding public confidence rather than introducing what it described as opaque processes capable of raising fresh questions about how results would be generated, verified and declared.
It also accused the commission of failing to adequately explain the disruptions surrounding the electronic transmission and viewing of results during the 2023 election.
The group further questioned INEC Chairman’s warning against individuals and media organisations announcing results not officially declared by the commission.
According to the movement, although INEC has the statutory authority to declare official results, the warning becomes a matter of concern when placed alongside the commission’s proposed use of AI in the results process.
The Obidient Movement also referred to rumours alleging that the INEC Chairman had been in France with President Bola Tinubu, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, and other APC-linked political actors to perfect strategies for manipulating the 2027 elections.
It stressed that the allegation remained a rumour but said the concerns surrounding INEC’s planned use of AI had heightened public suspicion.
The group also linked Wike’s recent confidence about the outcome of the 2027 elections to what it described as broader concerns over the relationship between the electoral commission, the APC and the Tinubu administration.
The movement said the problems experienced during the 2023 election were not caused by a lack of technology, but by what it described as failures in the handling, transmission and verification of results.
It therefore demanded that all election results remain traceable from the polling unit to the final declaration and be independently verifiable by political parties, observers, journalists and citizens.
Among its demands, the group called on INEC to publish a transparent and independently auditable framework for every technology to be deployed in the 2027 elections.
It also demanded the publication of Forms EC8A, EC8B, EC8C, EC8D and EC8E on the commission’s IREV portal, adopting what it described as Mundus Analytics’ five commitments for electoral transparency.
The Obidient Movement warned that Nigerians would not surrender their votes to technology, bureaucracy or political manipulation in 2027.
“Every vote must count, every result must be verifiable, and the true choice of the Nigerian people must prevail,” it said.
“The mandate belongs to the people. Nigeria must be OK.”
