Deji Adeleke Blames Election Rigging On Poll Officials, Calls For Electoral Integrity

President of Adeleke University, Ede, and billionaire businessman, Deji Adeleke, has called for collective efforts to strengthen the credibility of Nigeria’s electoral process, insisting that election malpractice cannot be stopped by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chairman alone.

Adeleke, who is the elder brother of Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke, made the remarks on Sunday during the university’s 12th undergraduate and eighth postgraduate convocation ceremonies held in Ede, Osun State.

He argued that electoral fraud often occurs at the polling unit level, alleging that some National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members assigned to election duties, as well as security personnel, compromise the process by accepting bribes to alter results.

“People die, there is violence during elections. They have killed young people like you graduating today who might become adult staff of INEC, changing figures.

“You cannot blame that on the INEC chairman when youth corps members are collecting N50,000 and changing figures at the polling unit.

“Even if the INEC chairman is a spirit, is he going to be at all the polling units in Nigeria?

“Very soon we are going to have an election in Osun State. Osun State has 3,763 polling units. Is it humanly possible for the INEC chairman to be at all those polling units at the same time?

“But they have entrusted it to young people like you, and yet they will collect money and change the figures. We also have policemen with children who need a good country to have a future, aiding and abetting the rigging process, and people are killed just because of elections,” Adeleke said.

He warned that continued manipulation of elections would damage Nigeria’s global reputation and undermine the country’s democratic development.

“So, it’s very painful when you see these things happen because of ignorance of the implications of what people do on election day or the ignorance of judges perverting justice. The implication is that Nigeria will continue to regret it if it doesn’t change immediately. But it’s not too late for us to change. It’s never too late to start all over.”

Earlier, the Vice-Chancellor of Adeleke University, Prof. Solomon Adebola, highlighted the institution’s achievements over the past academic year, noting that it admitted 1,554 students into undergraduate and postgraduate programmes during the 2025/2026 session.