Protesters Confront INEC Chair Amupitan Outside Chatham House In London

Nigerian protesters in the UK stopped Joash Amupitan, chairman of INEC, as he left Chatham House on Thursday after delivering a speech there.

They accused him of favouring President Bola Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC), and called him a “criminal” who wants to mess up Nigeria’s electoral process.

A video shared on social media on Thursday shows demonstrators with placards standing in front of the vehicle carrying Mr Amupitan and preventing it from leaving.

They shouted insults at the INEC chairman, calling him “Bastard, evil man, idiot.”

“God will punish you. You are a criminal. Why are you running? Amupitan, come outside. Come outside and speak to us. He has questions to answer. You want to mess up our electoral process,” the protesters said as they stood in front of the car carrying Mr Amupitan.

Related: INEC Is Impartial, Says Tinubu

Backdrop: the voter register controversy

The protest comes as reports emerge of AI-generated photos and duplicated names in the voter registers for the 2027 elections.

INEC has acknowledged that its own staff tampered with the register. It says it has removed 1.6 million names and identified 54 officers for corrupt practices.

Amupitan’s denial over the X account

At Chatham House on Thursday, Mr Amupitan rejected claims that he ran a pro-APC, pro-Tinubu X page, which stirred controversy earlier this year.

“I never had an X account, and I tried to write to X, but there’s no way you can do that if you don’t have an X account. They even said I was a member of President Tinubu’s legal team. It was not true,” Mr Amupitan said.