Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has intensified efforts to clean up the Register of Voters to strengthen electoral integrity and public confidence ahead of the 2027 General Elections.
The exercise is aimed at addressing irregularities accumulated over successive voter registration exercises, including duplicate registrations, deceased persons, underage registrations, non-citizens and incomplete or inaccurate voter records.
INEC Chairman, Professor Joash Amupitan, said maintaining an accurate and credible voters’ register remained fundamental to the conduct of free, fair and transparent elections.
The Commission explained that the national register, initially compiled ahead of the 2011 General Election, required periodic verification to reflect current realities and eliminate inconsistencies.
Amupitan explained that INEC had deployed technology-enabled verification mechanisms, including its Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS), to identify suspicious and irregular entries.
The Commission had also been conducting claims and objections exercises, allowing registered voters and members of the public to scrutinise the preliminary register and report discrepancies for correction.
Amupitan said the exercise was necessary to improve the quality of the register and ensure that only eligible Nigerians were recognised as registered voters.
He maintained that the preliminary register was not the final certified document, stressing that verification, adjudication and data-cleanup processes would continue before its final certification.
The final Register of Voters is scheduled for certification by the middle of next month, December 15.
The importance of the exercise has become more pronounced following concerns raised over the preliminary Register of Voters published online in October 2026, which attracted public scrutiny over suspected artificial intelligence-generated photographs, duplicate entries and other questionable records.
INEC flags 268 records
INEC’s Director of Information and Communication Technology, Lawrence Bayode, said the Commission had identified 268 records flagged by ABIS for suspected AI-generated photographs and other irregularities.
He explained that the affected records were undergoing examination and that the Commission had commenced the process of removing confirmed irregular entries.
Bayode, however, clarified that photographs genuinely belonging to voters but enhanced through artificial intelligence applications would not automatically result in their exclusion from the register.
The Commission also disclosed that technology-enabled verification had identified approximately 1.5 million questionable voter records, out of which more than 1.27 million had been confirmed invalid and removed from the national database.
RN
