Political activist and Nigeria Democratic Congress member, Aisha Yesufu, has said supporters of the party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, will take direct steps to protect their votes in the 2027 presidential election.

Yesufu said the supporters would deploy representatives to polling units and monitor election materials and results throughout the collation process. She said the monitoring would continue from polling units through ward, local government and state collation centres until the final results are declared in Abuja.

She disclosed this during an interview on Arise News while discussing Obi’s prospects in the 2027 election and lessons from the 2023 presidential poll. According to her, the experience of the previous election had shown the need for voters and political groups to become more involved in protecting their ballots.

“Yes, we are going to have people at every polling unit to protect the votes,” Yesufu said.

She explained that the planned structure would enable supporters to follow results at every stage of the collation process. She said result sheets would remain under observation as they moved from polling units to higher collation centres.

“No result sheet will leave our sight. We will follow the results from the polling units all the way to Abuja,” she said.

Yesufu said the objective was to ensure that the final results reflected the votes actually cast by Nigerians. She also said she had “zero trust” in the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, security agencies and the judiciary, arguing that citizens could not leave the protection of their votes entirely to institutions. She therefore called for stronger grassroots mobilisation ahead of the