As the 2027 general elections approach, new worries are growing as more and more acts of vandalism against telecommunications equipment endanger the stability of networks in some sections of the country.
According to Sunday PUNCH, people in the industry have warned that repeated attacks on important assets like base stations, fiber optic cables, and power systems might cause communication services to stop working.
This comes after a wave of theft and looting of telecom equipment in at least 14 states, which has made people worried about the safety of important national assets just nine months before the 2027 general elections.
The Independent National Electoral Commission depends on stable network services a lot to coordinate and send results.
Telecom networks are utilized during elections to send results from polling places in real time using electronic systems like the INEC Result Viewing Portal. They are also used for communication between field officials, security agencies, and collation centers all around the country.
The infrastructure also helps with the process of registering voters, digital reporting, and getting election updates out to the public.
However, the Nigerian Communications Commission reported that criminals have been targeting telecom sites more and more in 14 states. In 2025 alone, they stole at least 656 important power assets, including 152 generators and 504 batteries. This trend continued into early 2026.
The situation has gotten worse because of the 1,344 occurrences of diesel theft and the frequent fiber cuts, which averaged around 1,100 cases a week by the end of 2025. These problems have made network operations much more difficult across the country.
The areas that have been hit the hardest are Delta, Rivers, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Ogun, Ondo, Edo, Lagos, Kogi, the Federal Capital Territory, Kaduna, Niger, Osun, and Kwara states. Armed groups and thieves often target telecom sites and steal things like power cables, rectifiers, feeder cables, solar panels, and diesel.
The results also showed that between January and February 2026, 64 more batteries and 17 more generators were taken. In January, cable theft went up drastically from 74 incidents in the same month of 2025 to 160 cases. In February, it went up from 73 cases to 151 cases. There were also 222 diesel thefts in the two-month timeframe.
The president of Telcos says that disruption will damage the election.
Tony Emoekpere, the President of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria, said that the attacks were so bad that they went beyond normal operational problems.
He says that losing generators, batteries, and other important assets is directly causing service problems.
“To be clear, this problem has gone from being a problem for the industry to being a problem for its very existence. We are spending too much to protect infrastructure, and that can’t go on.
“When sites go down, you immediately see more dropped calls, worse voice quality, and slower or completely unavailable data services,” he said.
He further said that while cities may be able to reroute traffic, rural areas typically have complete outages.
Toye Apampa, a telecom expert and the founder of Metaheuristic, told our reporter that the present level of attacks might damage the systems that support not only elections but also a wide range of other digital services.
He claimed that the size and direction of the damage showed that there was a growing gap between policy and enforcement.
“You can’t keep up with the amount of diesel theft and weekly fiber cuts that the NCC is reporting against that baseline and expect the national systems that depend on it to work.”
He stated, “The UNDP Digital Development Compass already gives Nigeria’s connectivity a score of 2.27 out of 5.99 and its physical infrastructure a score of 2.15. This is the Systematic stage, which means the foundations are there but still weak.”
It’s planned sabotage by CSOs and opposing groups.
Omenazu Jackson, the Chancellor of the International Society for Social Justice and Human Rights, told one of our reporters in an interview that the recent vandalism could be a planned attempt to undermine the election process.
“The ruling party is doing these things on purpose to hurt the country. They have already gotten the 14 states to agree to hold elections by hand in those states. People are acting like Nigerians are stupid by doing these things. Let it be known that we know what’s going on. We are not kids.
“The government needs to fix those things before the election.” The election should not happen if those 14 states aren’t fixed. The truth is that people are doing things to go against what the Nigerian people want.
“The next election will be between the very poor and the very rich. The rich, who are in the minority, know that the people have risen up to defend their mandate.” “The only way for the elite to get what they want is to break the rules,” he stated.
Auwal Rafsanjani, the Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, said that it was the government’s job to stop vandalism and make sure that elections went well.
“If the government really wants e-transmission to fail, it will fail because it will make it impossible for it to work.” “But if the government really wants to make sure that Nigerians have free, fair, and honest elections, it will happen,” he stated.
Rafsanjani said that neighborhood groups, the police, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, and the Department of State Services should all work together to safeguard public property from damage.
He said that the government would have to be determined for the 2027 elections to be successful or not, and that actions or inactivity might hurt the process.
The executive director said that any story that normalizes vandalism could mean that someone is involved or careless.
“The administration must make sure that nothing hurts the 2027 elections, not even vandalizing public property or assets. Musa remarked, “Anyone who destroys public property should be arrested and put on trial so that it serves as a lesson.”
Debo Adeniran, the Executive Director of the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, also talked about the bigger economic and social effects of graffiti. He said it may affect telecommunications, businesses, and public safety.
He said that the argument about sending election results electronically goes back before the problem of vandalism, but he warned that more destruction of infrastructure may make things worse.
“Even without vandalism, the e-transmission of election results has been a topic of debate for a while.” The election legislation did not guarantee us that we would get the results right away. He said, “But vandalism can only make things worse.”
He said that the government’s solutions to security issues were not good enough and that the government should put the safety and well-being of its citizens first.
Adeniran said that there should be backup plans in place to make sure that elections can go on no matter what. He suggested several ways to send information electronically.
“The government should admit its failure if that happens and it affects our election.” As we have said before, there should be a Plan B, even as the discussion over whether the election legislation allows for real-time transmission is going on. He remarked, “There should be Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, and even Plan D. If one doesn’t work, another one will.”
He said that satellite technology and manual techniques could be good backup choices.
Adeniran stressed that the voting system needs to be open, accountable, and strong.
“They should find other ways to make sure that the next election is open, trustworthy, and responsible at every step. The government must find a method to protect lives and property, including the business environment, no matter what happens. “Business owners shouldn’t be afraid to run their businesses because of crime that could put them out of business,” Adeniran said.
He ended by saying again how important it is to have backup procedures for sending election results.
Adeniran said, “Basically, if vandalism keeps happening, it could affect e-transmission.” There should be a mechanism to protect manual transmission. That’s why we’ve said that anything might happen on election day and that we shouldn’t just trust the internet. There must be other ways to send election results that are completely secure and can’t be broken into.
“We held elections that were mostly free and peaceful with little trouble before the internet came along. We can still use that as Plan B. Plan A should be to send things electronically on a regular basis. Using satellite equipment should be Plan B.
“Plan C should be to use a manual transmission with a large security escort to make sure that the results aren’t changed on the way to the collation centers. Then there is Plan D or any other option that works. That is what we think.
Opposition: It’s worrying
Ini Ememobong, the National Publicity Secretary of a group within the Peoples Democratic Party, spoke out against the vandalism of telecommunications facilities, saying that it should not be seen as just an attack on infrastructure, but as a serious threat to democracy, national security, and the country’s fight against terrorism.
He said, “It should be seen as a threat not only to the election, but also to democracy and national security.”
Bolaji Abdullahi, the National Publicity Secretary of the African Democratic Congress, also criticized the federal government over the matter.
He said, “What is clear is that the position of the Electoral Act will not change in any significant way as a result of any assessment of telecoms installations.” The worry is still the same: without automatic transmission of election results, the electoral process can be changed. I don’t think it matters if the people who are vandalizing telecom installations are trying to explain why this is happening.
“Some problems, though, are more than just politics.” It is important to know that if there isn’t enough communication infrastructure in important sections of the country, security agencies won’t be able to work together as well as they should. “Not everything should be made political.”
He went on to say, “When telecom infrastructure is damaged and the people who did it are not punished, it shows that the government is not able to protect important national assets.” If infrastructure and people can’t be safeguarded, it makes you worry about how well the government is doing its job.
Senator Nenadi Usman, the Interim National Chairman of the Labour Party, told our reporter that while the destruction of telecom assets is bad, it shouldn’t be used for political gain.
Usman replied through her Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Ken Asogwa, “I don’t want to talk about a conspiracy theory.” What needs to be made clear is that the security services need to work even harder to stop the vandalism of telecom property. They need to find the people who did this.
She said that saying the attacks were politically motivated because of the 2027 elections was not helpful.
She continued, “But the Labour Party can’t connect it to the 2027 election.” Because of the next election, I’m still not sure what people will gain from that. In my opinion, it doesn’t help either the ruling party or the opposition parties.
The National Publicity Secretary of the Social Democratic Party argued that the wave of vandalism should not be considered as a separate threat to the voting process, but rather as part of Nigeria’s growing insecurity.
“Our insecurity is getting worse and affecting all parts of our national life. We have people who have to move, who don’t have enough food, and other problems. “All of these are side effects of the general insecurity,” Usman said.
She said that important infrastructure in many areas has been under constant attack, giving examples from areas other than telecoms.
“So, it has spread to our infrastructure and everything else. It’s not just happening in the telecom industry. It has happened in the oil industry and other parts of infrastructure. At one point in Lagos, officials from the Federal Ministry of Works were worried about the damage that hoodlums were doing to the Third Mainland Bridge.
“But it also makes me wonder if the government can actually protect lives and property. I usually appeal to the constitution as the main obligation of government.
Chapter 2, Section 14 says that the main job of the government is to protect lives and property. In other words, the government needs to do more. As a country, we are in a bad place.
He also said that the current security measures may not be enough.
“You have seen the civil defense corps basically doing all of these things. But I don’t think they can accomplish much. We need to be able to defend our telecommunications, oil, energy, and all of that better.
We will take care of it—INEC
Victoria Eta-Messi, the Director of Voter Education and Publicity at the Independent National Electoral Commission, indicated that the commission was aware of the concerns and will deal with them when we called.
She remarked, “The Commission will deal with the problem, figure out what the problems are, and let people know.”
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