INEC uncovers officers behind irregularities in voters’ register

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has identified some of its registration officers allegedly responsible for introducing irregularities, including suspected artificial intelligence-generated photographs and questionable identities, into the preliminary voters’ register.

The Commission’s Director of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Dr Lawrence Bayode, disclosed this on Friday while speaking on Arise Television’s Morning Show.

Bayode said investigations revealed that some registration officers across different states allegedly abused their official login credentials to manipulate the voter registration system and introduce questionable entries.

According to him, the irregularities were not restricted to a particular location, as the commission discovered similar cases involving registration officers in different parts of the country.

He explained that the officers had access to the registration platform, which enabled them to introduce questionable information into the database.

“We have registration officers on the field, and these registration officers have login details to access the system.

“What we have found out is that some of these registration officers are not only in the places we are seeing on social media. Some of them, not all, across the states nationwide, have done different things to bring these irregularities onto the register,” he said.

The INEC director disclosed that the commission’s Automated Biometric System (ABS) detected several suspicious entries before the publication of the preliminary voters’ register.

He said the commission had commenced efforts to clean up the database while working towards meeting the statutory 90-day deadline for publishing the preliminary register.

Bayode, however, clarified that not all the questionable photographs identified on the register were generated using artificial intelligence, explaining that some resulted from poor registration practices.

“Some of these pictures are AI-generated. Some of them are not AI-generated, but very bad registration, and this thing got into the register by the registration officers because they have access to register people,” he stated.

He further maintained that the commission had been able to establish how some of the irregularities were introduced through its automated verification processes.

“When the ABS was run on the system, we saw these people. We know what they did. We know how they did it, but honestly, I don’t know why,” Bayode added.

The development comes amid growing concerns among political stakeholders over the integrity of the voters’ register ahead of the 2027 general elections.

The controversy has heightened calls for stronger safeguards, transparency and accountability in INEC’s voter registration process to protect the credibility of future elections.