Presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Obi, has warned that attempts to manipulate the Independent National Electoral Commission’s result viewing portal (IReV) during the 2027 elections will face stronger resistance, saying his camp would deploy alternative technological measures to protect election results.
Obi spoke on Thursday in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, during a town hall meeting with voters tagged “Obi Talks Nigeria”, where he said measures were being put in place to prevent a repeat of what he described as irregularities that marred the 2023 presidential election.
“Yes, they will try to manipulate the IReV. But let me tell you, it will not be easy this time,” Obi said, adding that alternative systems would be available to ensure that election results could still be transmitted and monitored where technical problems occurred.
“There will be so many IReVs this time. If there is a network glitch, we will give them another one that has no glitch,” he said. “By allowing them to continue, that glitch will glitch our lives. That is what we are suffering today.”
Obi, who finished third in the 2023 presidential election behind Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, also vowed to resist intimidation at polling units in 2027, declaring: “Nobody will intimidate us again at the polling booth.” He added: “Somebody said, ‘We are ready to die.’ Let me tell you, I’m ready to die too.”
