The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has deleted 1,609,533 records from the national voters register following a nationwide audit that exposed multiple registrations, manipulated photographs, suspicious enrolment patterns and entries for deceased persons.
The Commission said it has identified 54 personnel across 10 states allegedly linked to the irregularities.
Its Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, disclosed this on Monday in Abuja while briefing journalists on the outcome of the review of the Preliminary Register of Voters ahead of the 2027 general elections.
He explained that the deleted records comprised 1,608,660 confirmed invalid registrations and 873 entries belonging to verified deceased voters.
According to him, the commission had concluded the clean-up relating to the 2025/2026 Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise, while final reconciliation, quality assurance and publication checks were ongoing ahead of the release of the Final Register of Voters scheduled for December 15, 2026.
He said the national register has evolved through successive registration and Continuous Voter Registration exercises since 2011, with biometric and demographic data captured under different technologies, operational arrangements and quality standards.
He noted that although the register had undergone cleansing and biometric comparisons at different stages, significant historical integrity concerns remained and required a systematic national response.
He said the review was undertaken pursuant to Section 19(2) of the Electoral Act, 2026, which requires the commission to consider objections, claims and complaints raised by members of the public against the Preliminary Register of Voters within 14 days of its display.
He added that the statutory process allows eligible voters and members of the public to identify irregularities, enabling INEC to make necessary corrections before publishing the final register.
Shedding light on the exercise, the INEC chairman said the commission harvested 11,088,238 registration records from the three phases of the CVR exercise.
He disclosed that the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) initially flagged 1,545,052 records for further examination, stressing that being flagged did not automatically establish that a registration was invalid.
Of the records subjected to further scrutiny, he said 1,277,052 registrations were confirmed invalid and excluded before the publication of the Preliminary Register.
The commission subjected another 268,000 cases to adjudication following complaints, claims and objections received during the seven-day display exercise conducted between October 9 and 15, this year.
He said 217,722 of the cases were confirmed invalid and removed, while 50,278 were cleared as valid and retained in the register.
He added that subsequent screening identified another 113,886 invalid registrations, bringing the additional invalid entries removed after the preliminary register review to 331,608.
The 331,608 records were removed in addition to the 1,277,052 registrations earlier excluded, he said, while the 873 records belonging to deceased voters were treated as a separate category.
The chairman further said the findings exposed deliberate attempts to circumvent established registration procedures, including the misuse of provisions intended to accommodate exceptional registration circumstances, particularly those relating to persons with disabilities.
According to him, the affected records had been identified and subjected to verification and remediation, while personnel allegedly connected with the infractions had been identified for administrative investigation.
“Fifty-four persons cutting across ten States have been identified as complicit and necessary disciplinary action will be taken against them including possible prosecution,” he said.
He cautioned that the latest exercise had not completely resolved the integrity concerns surrounding the national register, noting that several irregularities predated the 2025/2026 registration exercise.
He said many complaints involving multiple registrations and suspicious photographs circulating on social media related to historical records captured between 2011 and 2023.
The commission’s decision to defer the proposed nationwide voter revalidation exercise until after the 2027 general elections did not mean it had abandoned existing mechanisms for identifying and removing invalid entries, he said.
He disclosed that INEC, at its meeting on Monday, resolved to address outstanding duplications in the historical register, directing that records already flagged through public complaints and obvious cases identified internally should be removed after proper verification.
He also explained that some voters who relocated and complained about the omission of their names had registered afresh instead of transferring their existing registrations to their new polling locations.
He said the subsequent registrations were invalidated by the biometric screening system, while their original records remained at their previous registration locations.
He advised affected voters to check their former registration locations rather than assume that their names had been completely removed from the register.
Speaking on allegations that artificial intelligence-generated photographs were being used to compromise voter registration, Amupitan confirmed that the commission had identified cases involving manipulated images and was introducing additional safeguards.
He said INEC had directed its Director of Information and Communication Technology to discontinue the use of external webcam-based image uploads for voter registration, insisting that photographs should instead be captured through an approved application.
“You see, it takes just one person to compromise the password. Some of those things are given in authority. And when that is done, you know what AI can do,” he said.
He further disclosed that the commission had approved a comprehensive Artificial Intelligence Governance Framework to regulate the responsible deployment of AI in its operations.
He said the framework, developed in collaboration with partners, including the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) and the British High Commission, had undergone peer review and received the commission’s approval.
He added that security agencies were conducting independent investigations into the irregularities, while INEC would refer cases involving suspected criminal conduct to the appropriate law enforcement agencies for prosecution.
The commission, he said, was also strengthening its information technology infrastructure and cybersecurity measures ahead of the 2027 elections.
Speaking on concerns that the discovered irregularities could undermine the credibility of the forthcoming elections, Amupitan maintained that existing safeguards, particularly the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), would prevent multiple accreditation and voting.
He explained that voters would be required to appear physically at their designated polling units and undergo biometric authentication through either fingerprint verification or facial recognition.
According to him, the system verifies voters’ identities against the register and records successful accreditation, with controls designed to prevent an individual from being accredited more than once.
The INEC chairman said the complaints and objections received during the preliminary register display had demonstrated the importance of the statutory review process, which provides an opportunity for the public to identify irregularities before publication of the final register.
He reiterated the commission’s commitment to protecting eligible voters against wrongful exclusion while ensuring that confirmed invalid entries were removed.
Amupitan informed that INEC would obtain and study the judgment of the Federal High Court concerning the leadership crisis in the African Democratic Congress (ADC) before determining its next line of action.
The judgment, which nullified the David Mark-led leadership of the party, has raised questions about the party’s leadership structure and its preparations ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Amupitan said the commission would not act on information circulating on social media without first obtaining the relevant court documents and examining the judicial processes.
“We don’t just act on the basis of what was posted on the social media. Remember one of the judgments of Supreme Court sometime ago that was posted on social media, It trended and the Supreme Court disowned itself from it, and even some people have been investigated.
“So, normally, when we receive judgment like that, it comes with the provision of the relevant documents, like Certified True Copy surrounding each case. And in this case, I have yet to receive the judgments. So the judgment is to be received and studied. You know I’m also a lawyer. Apart from that, I will to through it to see the processes that have been filed”.
Reacting to the subpoena issued by a Federal High Court in Abuja directing him to appear as a defence witness in the ongoing criminal trial of human rights activist and African Action Congress (AAC) presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, Amupitan said he was yet to receive the order.
The subpoena directs the INEC chairman to produce electoral documents relating to President Bola Tinubu’s 1999 Lagos State governorship election and the 2023 presidential election.
Sowore is standing trial over his description of the President as a criminal, a remark that forms part of the allegations in the ongoing case.
Amupitan said the commission would study the subpoena upon receipt and determine the appropriate action in accordance with its provisions.
“I have not received the order. So when I receive the order, I would look at what it says and then know what to do accordingly,” he said.
On the possibility of introducing early voting for journalists and electoral officials who would be engaged in election duties, the INEC chairman said the proposal was not currently recognised under the existing electoral law.
He explained that previous efforts to introduce early voting through amendments to the Electoral Act had not secured the necessary support in the National Assembly.