Angry Nigerian protesters in the UK waylaid Joash Amupitan, the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, after his appearance at Chatham House on Thursday, calling him a “criminal” who wants to mess up Nigeria’s electoral process.

A video on social media on Thursday showed protesters holding placards and blocking the car carrying Mr Amupitan as he tried to leave Chatham House after his speech.

Blocking Mr Amupitan’s car, the protesters hurled invectives, calling the INEC chairman “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.

This protest comes amid revelations of AI-generated photos and name duplications flooding the 2027 voter registers. INEC admitted its workers tampered with the register, adding that 1.6 million names have been removed and 54 officers have been singled out for corruption.

During his engagement at the Chatham House on Thursday, Mr Amupitan denied operating a pro-APC and Tinubu X page that sparked controversy earlier in the 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.

Though Mr Amupitan had denied owning the pro-APC and Tinubu X account, Peoples Gazette cited fresh evidence showing his Yahoo mail and phone number are linked to the same X account that declared “victory is sure” for the All Progressives Congress in March 2023.