Despite deleting 1,608,660 invalid registrations and flagging 54 officials across 10 states, INEC’s clean-up has failed to engender confidence among Nigerians.
For many citizens, the action came only after public outcry exposed duplicate entries, AI-generated photographs and names of deceased persons on the preliminary register.
They inaist that the action fails all logic about transparency.
” That sequence — public exposure first, Commission action second, has reinforced the belief that INEC is not insulated from politics, and cannot be trusted to police itself,” says an analysts who pleaded foe anonymity
INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, disclosed the figures on Monday while briefing journalists on the outcome of the review of the 2025/2026 Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise.
He said the Commission harvested 11,088,238 registration records from the three phases of the exercise. Its Automated Biometric Identification System initially flagged 1,545,052 entries for further examination.
Following complaints and objections raised by Nigerians after the preliminary register was displayed nationwide between October 9 and 15, the Commission subjected the flagged records to further scrutiny and adjudication.
Out of 268,000 cases reviewed after public complaints, 217,722 were found invalid, while 50,278 were confirmed valid and retained.
The Commission also removed 873 records belonging to verified deceased persons.
Amupitan said the 54 officials identified across 10 states would face possible disciplinary measures, including prosecution, where investigations establish their culpability.
He said investigations revealed instances where some registration personnel deliberately circumvented established procedures and abused provisions designed to accommodate exceptional circumstances, including registration of persons with disabilities.
But for many Nigerians, the revelation raises more questions than it answers:
“If officials inside the system could manipulate the register, how many other irregularities went undetected? And why did it take citizens to expose what the Commission’s own system should have caught?,” queries a concerned voter
Critics argue that the episode has again exposed INEC’s vulnerability to political influence — a perception that has trailed the Commission through successive election cycles.
INEC said the final voters’ register will be published on December 15, 2026, ahead of the January 16 and February 6, 2027 elections.
For now, however, the clean-up appears to have confirmed public fears rather than calmed them: that without sustained citizen vigilance, the register — and the credibility of the elections built on it — cannot be taken for granted.
Some Reactions:
After Public Outrage, INEC deletes 1.6m fake voters, but we are still not convinced that a thorough job has been done,” says a buyer who wants to be identified as Julius Adinze
“As far am concerned, despite the action, trust is still broken,” says Friday Ameh
“From denial, now to damage control, this is not good enough to earn our confidenc.” says Joshua Aliede
“That it took public outrage, not internal vigilance, to force the Independent National Electoral Commission to act, leaves much to be desired of a supposedly independent and impartial umpire,” Suleiman Salau
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