INEC removes 1.6 million names from voters’ register, fingers 54 officials

Nigeria’s electoral commission, INEC, said it has identified 54 persons across 10 states who allegedly manipulated the voter registration procedures and contributed to irregularities in the preliminary register of voters, including AI-generated profiles.

Speaking at a press conference in Abuja on Monday, INEC Chairman, Joash Amupitan, said a technical assessment of the voters register revealed instances in which some registration personnel deliberately circumvented established procedures and abused provisions designed for exceptional registration circumstances, including those for persons with disabilities.

Mr Amupitan, a professor, said the affected records had been identified, reviewed, and corrected, while the personnel involved had been identified for further administrative investigation.

“Fifty-four persons cutting across 10 states have been identified as complicit, and necessary disciplinary action will be taken against them, including possible prosecution,” the INEC chairman said.

“To prevent recurrence, the commission is strengthening its registration controls with enhanced biometric capture, authentication and verification safeguards.”

He said the commission’s technical assessment examined suspected multiple registrations, unusual registration patterns, substituted photographs and irregularities associated with registration transactions.

Mr Amupitan said the commission was also examining historical irregularities in the register dating back to 2011, noting that some duplicated names and photographs circulated on social media were linked to earlier registration exercises.

He said the commission would continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding the irregularities and strengthen its procedures to protect the integrity of the national register.

INEC said the investigation followed public complaints about irregularities in the preliminary register of voters displayed at registration areas between 9 and 15 October 2026 and subsequently published online.

Nigerians raised concerns over the inclusion of suspicious profiles, including those suspected to be AI-generated, in the voters register published online on 26 October.

The complaints included allegations of multiple registrations, unusual names, artificial or manipulated photographs and deceased persons remaining on the register.

According to the chairman, the commission has removed 1,608,660 confirmed invalid registrations from the preliminary register generated from the 2025/2026 Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise.

Mr Amupitan said the commission, at its meeting on Monday, 9 November, directed that records already flagged through public complaints, as well as obvious cases, should be removed after proper verification.

INEC said its Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) initially flagged 1,545,052 of the 11,088,238 records harvested from the three phases of the 2025/2026 Continuous Voter Registration exercise for further examination.

Following additional public complaints, the commission reviewed 268,000 cases, of which 217,722 were invalidated while 50,278 were cleared and retained, the INEC chairperson said.

The INEC chairman explained that many of the multiple registrations and suspicious photographs circulating on social media related to records captured between 2011 and 2023, rather than the latest CVR exercise.

According to him, the national register has evolved through successive registration and continuous voter registration exercises since 2011, using different technologies, operational arrangements and quality standards.