INEC chairman Amupitan’s old pro-Tinubu X posts resurface; ADC, others demand resignation
By Ishaya Ibrahim
Some Nigerians are calling on the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Joash Amupitan, to resign as the country’s electoral umpire over allegations of bias linked to a series of pro-Tinubu posts on an X account now believed to belong to him.
The X handle @joashamupitan was changed to @Sundayvibe00 and labelled as a parody account after netizens unearthed old posts in which the account cheered President Bola Tinubu ahead of the 2023 election. The account’s unique ID — 1567086242164101120 — has enabled users to trace its history to the original username.
The INEC chairman has denied ever having an X (formerly Twitter) account. However, those scrutinising the account ID claim that, apart from bearing his name when it was created in 2022, it was registered using the professor of law’s email address and phone number.
Grok AI has also confirmed on multiple occasions that the account ID 1567086242164101120 belonged to @joashamupitan before it was changed a few days ago to @Sundayvibe00.
In the heat of the debate on X, Bashir Ahmad, a former special assistant to the late President Muhammadu Buhari, asked Grok to reveal the true owner of the X ID 1567086242164101120.
He said: “Hi @Grok, for the sake of transparency, what was the original name of the X account with ID: 1567086242164101120 when it was created in September 2022, before it was later changed to joashamupitan in November 2025?”
The AI responded: “The X account ID 1567086242164101120 was created on September 6, 2022, under the username joashamupitan. There is no record of it being changed to joashamupitan in November 2025. Public reports and account tracking confirm that was its username from creation until April 10, 2026, when it was updated to Sundayvibe00 (and locked/protected) amid controversy over 2023 posts.”
Long before his appointment as INEC chairman, the @joashamupitan handle had made pro-Tinubu posts.
For instance, on March 18, 2023 — election day — Dayo Israel, the APC’s National Youth Leader, whom the handle followed, boasted of winning his “Igbo-dominated” polling unit. The @joashamupitan handle replied: “Victory is sure.”
In another post on April 25, 2023, a Tinubu support account celebrated the reception Tinubu received at the Abuja airport. The @joashamupitan handle responded with a single word: “Asiwaju,” meaning ‘leader.’
Many Nigerians are now demanding Amupitan’s resignation, citing the 1999 Constitution (Third Schedule, Paragraph 14(2)(a)), which requires the INEC chairman to be non-partisan and a person of unquestionable integrity.
The National Publicity Secretary of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, said Amupitan must resign.
He said: “The recent revelation linking a pro-Bola Ahmed Tinubu tweet of 2023 to the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Professor Amupitan, is not merely disturbing, it is a grave affront to the integrity of our electoral system.
“In a democracy, the umpire must be above suspicion. He must not only be independent, he must be seen, beyond any reasonable doubt, to be independent. That is the minimum standard required of anyone entrusted with the sacred duty of conducting free and fair elections.
“However, more troubling is the desperate attempt to tamper with digital records, to erase evidence of his previous partisanship.
“This is not a trivial matter. It is a calculated assault on truth and accountability.
“A man who manipulates records to save himself cannot be trusted to safeguard the mandate of millions.
“Over the past few days, it has been repeatedly revealed that Professor Amupitan, by his conduct, his utterances, and now by incontrovertible digital evidence, has fallen far below the standard expected of an electoral umpire. The referee cannot be running around in the shirt of one of the teams he’s supposed to officiate in a match.
“This is why Professor Amupitan must resign. Now. Anything less is an insult to the Nigerian people and a dangerous precedent for our democracy. Relying on this evidence, ADC will be updating our petitions to all relevant institutions, including to foreign governments and the Nigeria Bar Association, NBA.
“We will also renew and escalate our civil disobedience action until the INEC Chairman leaves office.”
