The Independent National Electoral Commission has announced that nationwide collection of Permanent Voter Cards will commence on Friday, October 9, 2026, ahead of the 2027 general elections.

INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, disclosed this on Monday in Abuja at a strategic workshop for media executives organised by the commission in collaboration with Development Alternatives Incorporated and the Nigerian Guild of Editors.

Amupitan said Nigeria’s National Register of Voters had risen to more than 103 million following the conclusion of the three-phase Continuous Voter Registration exercise, which attracted more than 10.6 million new applicants.

He added that the public display of the preliminary voters’ register for claims and objections had been completed, alongside the final Automated Biometric Identification System clean-up.

According to him, the commencement of PVC collection represents a significant phase in preparations for the 2027 elections, with the commission working to make the electoral process more transparent, technology-driven and credible.

The INEC chairman said the commission would continue to improve the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System and the INEC Result Viewing Portal to strengthen the credibility of the voting process and ensure that valid votes are properly accounted for.

He also identified public confidence as critical to the integrity of elections, stressing that trust in the electoral process remained essential to democratic participation.

Amupitan called for closer cooperation between INEC, the media, civil society organisations and other stakeholders, saying timely access to accurate information would help prevent misinformation and information gaps during the election period.

He urged news organisations to establish digital fact-verification desks and said INEC would provide editors with access to information needed to verify field incidents, logistics and security developments.

The commission’s Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Mrs Victoria Eta-Messi, also warned that misinformation and disinformation were contributing to declining citizen participation. She appealed to media organisations to provide Nigerians with accurate and timely information on PVC collection and other electoral activities.

Similarly, INEC Chief Press Secretary, Adedayo Oketola, said the commission was seeking stronger mechanisms for rapid fact-checking between newsrooms and INEC. He said the initiative was aimed at ensuring that the speed of news reporting did not compromise accuracy.

Oketola said the commission also wanted greater collaboration among electoral institutions, the media and civil society in promoting responsible reporting, civic enlightenment and conflict-sensitive coverage of the 2027 elections.

The Executive Director of the Centre for Media and Society, Dr Akin Akingbulu, urged journalists and editors to rigorously verify electoral information, particularly with the growing threat of deepfakes and other forms of digital manipulation.

The President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, Eze Anaba, called for accuracy, fairness, balance and public-interest journalism in reporting the 2027 elections.

Anaba said credible elections required not only citizens to cast their ballots but also confidence that their votes would count and that electoral institutions would conduct the process fairly and professionally.