No Press Release, No Communique, Just Pure, Unfiltered Street Verdict: How INEC Chairman, Joash Ojo Amupitan, Was Humiliated In London

No Press Release

 

 

OpenLife News reports that the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Joash Ojo Amupitan, has been humiliated in London by Nigerians who are angry over his democratic schemings.

There was no press release. No communique. Just pure, unfiltered street verdict. “People are hungry” and “Why are you running?”

The viral video, now circulating on WhatsApp, Facebook and X, shows Nigerians in diaspora confronting the man associated with Nigeria’s electoral commission on a London street — a moment that has come to symbolise the unbelievable loss of confidence in INEC, both at home in Nigeria and abroad.

It was not in Abuja. It was not in a collation centre. It was not on live television with a Returning Officer reading figures from a sheet nobody had seen before.

It was on a quiet street in London, in broad daylight, in front of ordinary people with phones in their hands and anger in their chests.

A black car pulled up, the kind of car that is supposed to announce importance before the door even opens. But this time, the car did not announce importance. It announced fear. Because as soon as it stopped, Nigerians surrounded it.

They were not the Nigerians back home who can be chased away with tear gas, with thugs, with a sudden announcement that voting has closed.

These were Nigerians in diaspora, Nigerians who had left home because home had failed them, Nigerians who now live in a country where votes actually count, where a server does not suddenly develop a glitch when the result is not convenient, where an election chairman does not tell two hundred million people to go to court and go and sleep.

They came with placards. They came with voices. They came with memory.“People are hungry, people are hungry, people are hungry!” they chanted, again and again, as if they wanted the words to enter through the tinted glass and settle in the conscience of the man inside.

It was not a slogan. It was a report card. It was what INEC had produced in Nigeria: hunger, distributed fairly to everybody, without any technical glitch.

Inside the car, the man said nothing. He did not wind down the window to explain. He did not come out to defend his record. He did not say, “I did my best, I am proud of what we achieved.”

He sat there, trapped, while his security men pushed and pulled and tried to create a path where there was no path.

And then came the question that turned the whole scene into a national referendum.”Why are you running? Why are you running now? Why are you running?”Why indeed? In Abuja, INEC never runs.

In Abuja, INEC walks boldly into a hall at 3 a.m., announces a result nobody saw, and tells the whole country to accept it in good faith. In Abuja, INEC has police, has soldiers, has a system that protects it from the people it is supposed to serve.

In London, INEC had none of that. In London, there was no collation officer to hide behind. There was no IReV to blame. There was no court to run to. There was only a car, a crowd, and a man who suddenly discovered that power does not travel well.

One protester, watching the desperation, shouted what many were thinking: “This guy should meet his wife.” Another added, “This guy mean business.”It was funny and tragic at the same time. For years, Nigerian big men have used London as their escape room, the place where they go to rest from the wahala they created at home, to shop, to sleep, to forget.

But the wahala has now followed them. The voter you cheated in 2023 is now your neighbour in Peckham. The youth whose vote you discarded is now the man banging on your bonnet. The woman who stood under the sun for ten hours to vote is now the woman shouting into your window.

That is why the video editor pasted two faces at the bottom of the clip, the old INEC chairman and the new INEC chairman, side by side like twins.

The Video Transcript {Verbatim}

People are hungry, people are hungry, people are hungry. People are hungry, people are hungry. This bastard evil man, bastard evil man. Bastard evil man, look at him, bastard evil man. Punish you, idiot animal. Why are you running?

Why are you running? Why are you running? Why are you running now? Why are you running? This guy should meet his wife. This guy mean business. 54 seconds. No speech. No press conference. No “INEC assures.” Just a verdict delivered on a London street, straight to a car window.

The message was unmistakable: change the chairman, keep the wahala. Change the face, keep the machine. Nigerians are no longer angry at one man. They are angry at an institution that has lost all credibility.

At home, the loss of confidence is total. Market women say, why waste transport to vote when the result is already written? Students say BVAS is just for decoration. Old men say, in their time rigging had shame, now rigging has a press conference.

Abroad, the loss of confidence is even louder, because those who left have seen what a working system looks like, and they know what Nigeria is missing.

There was no press release after the London incident. There was no communique.

INEC did not issue a statement to say, “We assure Nigerians of our commitment to free and fair elections.” How could it? What would it say? That the chairman was not running, he was just exercising? That the crowd was not angry, they were just greeting him?No. For once, there was no spin. There was only pure, unfiltered street verdict.

And the verdict was simple: the man who counts the votes is now being counted by the voters, and he is losing by a landslide.

He ran in London because he cannot run from the truth anymore. The truth has followed him across the ocean, it has found his car, and it is knocking on his window, asking him the only question that matters now.

Why are you running?

 

Highlight In Questions And Answers

 

Q: Was the INEC Chairman humiliated in London?
A: In a viral video circulating on social media, a man linked to INEC is seen in a black car in London surrounded by angry Nigerians in diaspora chanting “People are hungry” and asking “Why are you running?” while security tried to clear a path. The video has been interpreted as a street verdict on INEC’s credibility.

Q: What did Nigerians in London shout at the INEC Chairman?
A: The crowd chanted “People are hungry, people are hungry, people are hungry” and repeatedly asked “Why are you running? Why are you running now? Why are you running?” Other shouts heard in the video included insults directed at the man in the car.

Q: Why have Nigerians lost confidence in INEC?
A: Many Nigerians, home and abroad, cite the conduct of elections, especially the 2023 general elections, issues around BVAS and IReV result upload, late collation, court battles, hunger and economic hardship, and the perception that results are predetermined. The London confrontation is being shared as a symbol of that loss of confidence.

Q: Who are the two men shown at the bottom of the INEC London video?
A: The video overlay shows former INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu and new INEC Chairman Prof. Joash Amupitan, presented side by side to suggest that changing the chairman has not restored public trust in the commission.

Q: What does the London incident mean for 2027 elections?
A: Commentators say the incident shows INEC faces a credibility crisis not only in Nigeria but also among Nigerians in diaspora. If trust is not restored, turnout and acceptance of 2027 results could be affected, as many Nigerians already question whether their votes will count.