CLAIMS circulating on social media allege that the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Joash Amupitan, operated an X account that posted partisan content in support of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and President Bola Tinubu during the 2023 elections.
The claim centres on an X account previously known as @joashamupitan, which at one point reacted to a post by former National Youth Leader of APC, Dayo Israel, celebrating an APC victory in an Igbo-dominated community in Lagos by posting “victory is sure.”
The account, following public outcry was later renamed @Sundayvibe00 on April 10, 2026, locked, and labelled a parody account.
Following the digital footprints…
It is not uncommon for Nigerian academics like Joash Amupitan to have their contact details publicly available. We obtained his phone number and two email addresses, including the official email he has with UNIJOS, from his CV published online by Nigerian Post.
The phone number is 0803****099, and the emails associated with the phone number are am****an@unijos.edu.ng and am*****nj@yahoo.com.
The details are consistent with those being circulated online. We further confirmed that the phone number is linked to him using Truecaller and an Opay account associated with the number. Through True Caller, we further extracted another Gmail account, j***ho@gmail.com, linked to the phone number.
The numbers and emails below were deliberately masked by The Factcheckhub.
We then used these details to attempt account recovery on X using the account ID. Below is a comparison of the masked recovery information and his publicly available details:
- Phone number: 0803****099 → 2FA recovery shows: 08******99
- His Email with UNIJOS: amupitan@unijos.edu.ng → 2FA recovery shows: *****an@unijos.edu.ng
- Personal Email 2: j***ho@gmail.com→ 2FA recovery shows: j***ho@gmail.com
- Alternate email: am****nj@yahoo.com → not shown
This result shows a close similarity between the publicly available contact information and the masked recovery details associated with the account. One of the phone numbers closely matches his number, and two of his email addresses align with the masked emails.
Establishing ownership requires platform-level data such as login history, IP addresses, and device records, which are not publicly accessible, but the two-factor authentication shows a connection between Amupitan’s information online and the one used to open the X account.
Some users also relied on AI tools like Grok to validate the claim. In some instances, the tool suggested that the account belonged to Amupitan and referenced its username history. However, such tools rely on publicly available data and have been shown to produce inaccurate outputs. Their conclusions cannot be treated as definitive evidence.
First, when prompted by an X user, the tool confirmed that the account @joashamupitan existed on the platform and attributed it to Prof. Joash Ojo Amupitan, the INEC chairman. It provided specific details, including the account ID 1567086242164101120 and indicated that the account was created in September 2022.
The tool further stated that the account later changed its username to @Sundayvibe00, which is now protected and labelled a “Parody Account,” following the resurfacing of pro-APC posts made during the 2023 election period.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has denied the claim, stating that Amupitan does not own or operate any X account. The commission described the account as a fabrication by impersonators and said the matter has been referred to security agencies.
“The INEC Chairman does not own or operate any personal account on X. He has at no time engaged in partisan commentary, nor has he ever associated himself with any political leaning or activity in his private or public capacity,” the statement read.
However, no publicly available forensic report has been released to independently verify this position.