INEC removes 1.6m invalid voter records, identifies 54 officials for prosecution

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has removed 1,608,660 invalid voter registrations from the national register following a comprehensive clean-up of records generated during its 2025 and 2026 Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercises.

The commission also disclosed that it had identified 54 officials across 10 states for disciplinary action, including possible prosecution, over alleged irregularities uncovered during the registration exercise.

INEC Chairman, Professor Joash Amupitan, disclosed this on Monday during a press briefing in Abuja, explaining that the clean-up was conducted using the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS).

The exercise followed public outrage in October over alleged irregularities in the preliminary voter register, including duplicate registrations, artificial intelligence-generated photographs and entries belonging to deceased persons.

Amupitan said the commission harvested 11,088,238 records from the three phases of the 2025/2026 CVR exercise, out of which ABIS initially flagged 1,545,052 records for further examination.

He clarified that being flagged by the automated system did not automatically mean a registration was invalid, as each case was subjected to further examination and adjudication.

According to him, 1,277,052 registrations were initially confirmed invalid and excluded before the preliminary register was published.

He added that following complaints, claims and objections received during the display of the preliminary register at registration wards between October 9 and 15, 2026, as well as its subsequent online publication, another 268,000 cases underwent adjudication.

Of these, 217,722 were confirmed invalid and removed, while 50,278 were cleared and retained.

The chairman further disclosed that additional screening identified 113,886 invalid registrations, bringing the cumulative number of invalid records removed to 1,608,660.

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Separately, 873 records belonging to verified deceased persons were deleted, bringing the total number of removed records under both categories to 1,609,553.

INEC, he said, had concluded the clean-up exercise and was strengthening its registration procedures to prevent a recurrence.

On the alleged involvement of electoral officials, Amupitan said investigations had identified 54 persons across 10 states who were allegedly complicit in the irregularities.

He said the commission would take appropriate disciplinary measures against those involved, including possible prosecution.

The chairman explained that some registration personnel deliberately circumvented established procedures and abused provisions designed to accommodate exceptional registration circumstances, including those involving persons with disabilities.

He said the affected records had been identified and subjected to appropriate review and remediation, while the personnel involved had been referred for further administrative investigation.

Amupitan also addressed complaints by voters who discovered that their names were missing from the preliminary register.

According to him, investigations revealed that most of the affected individuals had initially registered between 2011 and 2023 but subsequently registered afresh instead of applying to transfer their voter registration to their new locations.

He explained that ABIS invalidated the subsequent registrations as duplicates, while the voters’ original records remained at their previous registration centres.

The INEC chairman consequently advised affected voters to check their former registration locations to establish the status of their records.

He reaffirmed the commission’s commitment to strengthening biometric capture, authentication and verification systems to safeguard the credibility of the national voter register ahead of future elections.