The commission says biometric screening and public complaints exposed registration irregularities, including duplicate entries and manipulated photographs, ahead of the 2027 elections.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it has removed 1,608,660 invalid registrations from records generated during the 2025 and 2026 Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise and identified 54 officials across 10 states for possible disciplinary action.
INEC Chairman Joash Amupitan disclosed this on Monday during a press briefing in Abuja, where he presented the outcome of the commission’s review of the preliminary register of voters ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The commission also removed 873 records belonging to verified deceased persons as a separate category.
Amupitan said the clean-up followed complaints, claims and objections received after INEC displayed the preliminary register at registration wards between October 9 and 15, 2026, and subsequently published it online.
The exercise followed public criticism over entries containing suspected duplicate registrations, unusual names, manipulated photographs, including images believed to have been generated using artificial intelligence, and records of deceased persons.
How INEC arrived at the 1.6 million figure
Amupitan said the commission received 11,088,238 registration records from the three phases of the 2025/2026 CVR exercise.
The Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) initially flagged 1,545,052 records for further examination. However, he stressed that being flagged did not automatically mean a registration was invalid.
“A flagged record is not necessarily an invalid registration: automated screening identifies matters requiring review, while authorised adjudication determines the outcome,” he said.
According to the chairman, 1,277,052 registrations had been confirmed invalid and excluded before the publication of the preliminary register.
Following complaints and objections during the public display, INEC reviewed another 268,000 cases. Of these, 217,722 were confirmed invalid and removed, while 50,278 were cleared and retained as valid registrations.
The commission subsequently identified another 113,886 invalid registrations through additional screening.
This brought the number of invalid registrations removed following the public objections and further screening to 331,608. Combined with the 1,277,052 registrations previously excluded, the total stood at 1,608,660.
Amupitan said the clean-up of the 2025/2026 CVR records had been concluded.
“The commission confirms that the current register-cleaning exercise for the 2025/2026 continuous voter registration (CVR) has been concluded.
“All 1,608,660 confirmed invalid registrations have been removed. In addition, 873 records belonging to verified deceased persons have also been removed as a separate category,” he said.
54 officials identified across 10 states
The INEC chairman also disclosed that 54 registration personnel across 10 states had been identified in connection with irregularities uncovered during the exercise.
He said the commission would take disciplinary action against those implicated, including possible prosecution.
“To prevent recurrence, the Commission is strengthening its registration controls with enhanced biometric capture, authentication and verification safeguards,” he said.
“Fifty-four persons cutting across ten States have been identified as complicit, and necessary disciplinary action will be taken against them, including possible prosecution.”
Amupitan said the commission’s technical assessment revealed instances in which some registration personnel deliberately bypassed established procedures and misused provisions intended for exceptional registration circumstances, including those relating to persons with disabilities.
He said the affected records had been identified and subjected to review and remediation, while the personnel involved had been identified for further administrative investigation.
The commission’s findings also raised questions about irregularities in the older voter register. Amupitan said some of the multiple registrations and suspicious photographs flagged by members of the public originated from records captured between 2011 and 2023.
INEC explains complaints over missing names
Addressing complaints from voters who could not find their names in the preliminary register, Amupitan said the commission discovered that many had registered between 2011 and 2023 but subsequently registered again after relocating instead of transferring their existing registration.
He explained that ABIS invalidated the subsequent registrations, while the original records remained at the voters’ former registration locations.
The chairman advised affected voters to check the register at their previous locations rather than assume their records had been completely deleted.
INEC said it was strengthening its biometric capture, authentication and verification systems to prevent a recurrence of the irregularities as preparations continue for the 2027 general elections.
