By Clifford Ndujihe, Henry Umoru, Joseph Erunke, Johnbosco Agbakwuru, Omeiza Ajayi, John Alechenu, Olayinka Ajayi & Luminous Jannamike PARTIES and candidates for the presidential, 469 National Assembly, 28 governorship and 993 state assembly seats have high campaign hurdles to scale for the 2027 general polls. No fewer than eight states have announced between N20 million and N200 million as permit fees for campaign billboards, posters, and outdoor materials. More states are expected to unfold their fees, which are panning out as major sources of internally generated revenues for the states. According to the timetable of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, campaigns for the presidential and National Assembly elections will begin today, while those of the governorship and state assembly polls will start on September 9. Both elections are scheduled for January 16 and February 6, 2027, respectively. A host of the parties were upbeat about their readiness for the 151-day campaign relay, yesterday. Indeed, President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, APC; Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of African Democratic Congress, ADC; Mr Peter Obi of Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC; and 22 other presidential standard bearers apparently kicked off their campaigns in style, yesterday. They signed a peace accord and vowed to pursue issue-based campaigns at a ceremony in Abuja facilitated by the National Peace Committee, NPC, in partnership with The Kukah Centre. At the ceremony, while Tinubu warned against AI-driven misinformation, primordial tensions, ethnic and religious politics, adding that polls were not do-or-die, Obi told voters to reject violators of past accords. This was as the INEC said voters for the 2027 elections might hit the 100 million mark. The commission, which disclosed that it had started cleaning up the register, listed the challenges it was facing, saying it would deploy 1.4million ad hoc staff across 176,000 polling units for the balloting. 8 states announce N20m-N200m permit fees States that have announced out-of-home advertising campaign permit fees include Abia, Kogi, Anambra, Enugu, Bauchi, Ebonyi, Oyo and Kano. In Abia, the Abia State Structures for Signages and Advertising Agency, ABSSAA, announced the following fees: Presidential candidates – ₦200 million; governorship candidates – ₦150 million; senatorial candidates – ₦100 million; House of Representatives Candidates- ₦50 million; and State House of Assembly Candidates- ₦20 million. In Kogi, the rates are: Presidential – ₦150 million; senatorial -₦50 million; House of Representatives-₦30 million; State House of Assembly ₦5 million. While Enugu State imposed a ₦150 million comprehensive fee covering campaign materials, billboards, and branded vehicles, Anambra, Bauchi, Ebonyi, Kano, and Oyo states have fees ranging from ₦20 million upwards, depending on the elective office being sought INEC begins clean-up of voter register Meanwhile, INEC has declared that it was scaling up its operational capacity to deploy approximately 1.4 million ad hoc personnel across over 176,000 polling units nationwide for the 2027 general elections. The commission also disclosed that it was utilising the Automated Biometric Identification System, ABIS, under the Continuous Voter Registration, CVR, framework to eliminate duplicate entries and maintain a clean, verified National Register of Voters. Welcoming the Pre-Election Assessment Mission, PEAM, delegation of the International Republican Institute, IRI, led by former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Ambassador Jendayi Frazier, at INEC headquarters in Abuja, yesterday, Chairman of the commission, Prof. Joash Amupitan, listed major threats confronting the electoral space, warning that systemic risks continued to pose direct dangers to public trust. “Security risks, localised electoral violence, vote-buying, and the rapid proliferation of hate speech, disinformation, and Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference, FIMI, pose direct threats to voter confidence,” Amupitan noted. The visit coincided with key electoral milestones, coming three days after the Osun State off-cycle governorship election and a day before the official statutory commencement of public campaigns and rallies for the 2027 General Election on Wednesday, August 19, 2026. Prof. Amupitan noted that the mission offered an independent perspective as the commission transitions into full-scale national election preparations. He revealed that INEC had consistently used recent off-cycle governorship elections and legislative by-elections as live operational tests for its field logistics, security coordination, and technological framework, stressing that technology has permanently closed legacy vulnerabilities in Nige
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