INEC Deletes 1.6m Voter Records, Identifies 54 Staff Linked to Registration Irregularities Ahead of 2027 Polls

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has removed more than 1.6 million voter records after a nationwide review of the 2025/2026 Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise. It also identified 54 personnel across 10 states allegedly involved in registration irregularities.

The Commission also noted that the affected personnel would face disciplinary measures, including possible prosecution, as it moves to address concerns over the integrity of the voters’ register ahead of the 2027 general elections.

INEC Chairman, Professor Joash Amupitan, SAN, disclosed this on Monday, November 9, 2026, during a press conference at the Commission’s headquarters in Abuja, where he presented the outcome of the review and adjudication of the Preliminary Register of Voters.

According to Amupitan, the clean-up resulted in the removal of 1,608,660 confirmed invalid registrations, alongside 873 records belonging to verified deceased persons.

He explained that the Commission harvested 11,088,238 registration records from the three phases of the 2025/2026 CVR exercise, out of which the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) initially flagged 1,545,052 for further examination.

The INEC chair, however, cautioned against interpreting every flagged record as fraudulent, stressing that automated screening only identifies suspicious entries requiring further investigation.

“A flagged record is not necessarily an invalid registration: automated screening identifies matters requiring review, while authorised adjudication determines the outcome,” he said.

He said 1,277,052 registrations had been confirmed invalid and excluded before the Preliminary Register was published. After the register was displayed and public claims, objections and complaints were received, a further 268,000 cases underwent adjudication. Of these, 217,722 were ruled invalid and removed, while 50,278 were cleared and retained.

An additional screening exercise identified 113,886 further invalid registrations, bringing the post-display removals to 331,608.

The INEC chairman further noted that the electoral commission had concluded the current register-cleaning exercise for the 2025/2026 CVR, adding that the scale of the irregularities necessitated an investigation into how they occurred and the personnel responsible.

Besides the removal of questionable records, INEC disclosed that it discovered the technical personnel who deliberately violated the established registration procedures, adding that the assessment examined suspected multiple registrations, unusual registration patterns, substituted photographs and irregularities associated with registration transactions.

He added that the affected records had been identified, reviewed and subjected to remediation, while the personnel involved had been identified for further administrative investigation.

“The Commission found instances in which certain registration personnel deliberately circumvented established registration procedures and misused provisions intended for exceptional registration circumstances, including for persons with disabilities,” 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,” Professor Amupitan stated.

The Commission said it was strengthening its registration processes through enhanced biometric capture, authentication, and verification safeguards to prevent a recurrence.

INEC has faced backlash and public criticism lately following the controversy that followed the online publication of INEC’s Preliminary Register of Voters on October 26, 2026. The controversy began after Nigerians and civil society organisations raised concerns over photographs attached to several voter profiles, with some appearing unusually smooth, generic, and potentially artificially generated.

Other concerns included suspected duplicate registration details, unusual names, partially masked voter identification numbers, and the appearance of records belonging to deceased persons.

The allegations generated widespread reactions on social media, with several Nigerians questioning how photographs suspected to have been generated using artificial intelligence (AI) found their way into an official electoral database.

The controversy also raised broader questions about the security of INEC’s digital infrastructure, the level of access granted to registration personnel, the effectiveness of internal verification mechanisms, and the credibility of the 2027 general elections.

The Commission, in its defence, attributed some of the irregularities to the alleged misconduct of registration officers while maintaining that the Commission had not deployed artificial intelligence for voter registration.

The latest disclosure by Amupitan that some registration personnel deliberately manipulated established procedures further underscores concerns about insider threats and accountability within the Commission’s registration system.

This development has renewed concerns and calls from citizens about how the electoral body would address the bottleneck around the emerging technology in the 2027 general elections and INEC’s security measures against infiltration during the election. The concerns are particularly significant as INEC continues to expand its use of technology in electoral administration, including biometric voter accreditation, digital registration systems, and other electronic verification processes.