CITAD Urges Digital Security for 2027 Elections

The Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has called on political parties and candidates to improve the security, availability, and reliability of their official websites and social media platforms in preparation for the 2027 general elections. This appeal was made by CITAD's Executive Director, YZ Ya’u, following the organization's monitoring of the 2026 Osun State Governorship Election through its Privacy Abuse, Websites and Social Media Monitor (PAWSOM-MONITOR) initiative.

Ya’u stressed the importance of addressing technical, accessibility, and security challenges that could hinder effective voter communication. He urged parties to establish monitoring mechanisms for their digital platforms to quickly identify issues such as outages and hacking attempts.

Ya’u clarified that PAWSOM-MONITOR did not find any confirmed incidents of deliberate censorship or external interference during the monitoring period. CITAD plans to enhance PAWSOM-MONITOR's features ahead of the 2027 elections, focusing on monitoring both websites and social media accounts, as well as compliance with the Nigeria Data Protection Act.