Get Guardian on GoogleThe Executive Director of #FixPolitics Africa, Anthony Ubani, has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to subject its voter register to independent scrutiny amid concerns over suspected fictitious and irregular voter records ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Ubani, in a statement titled, ‘Who put the ghosts in INEC’s voter register?’, said the emergence of suspected AI-generated photographs and other questionable entries posed a threat to the credibility of the electoral process.
He urged INEC to publish a comprehensive account of its ongoing verification and clean-up exercise before certifying the final register.
According to him, electoral fraud could begin long before voting day through the introduction of fictitious identities or manipulation of voter records.
He said the concerns were heightened after INEC acknowledged on October 27 that some photographs in its preliminary voter register appeared to have been generated using artificial intelligence and that a verification exercise was underway.
Ubani said subsequent disclosures by INEC officials suggested that the problem extended beyond the records already identified publicly.
He cited comments by the commission’s Director of Information and Communication Technology, Dr Lawrence Bayode, who reportedly said some registration officers had used authorised access to introduce irregularities into the registration database.
Ubani also referenced figures attributed to Bayode, stating that INEC’s Automated Biometric Identification System screened 11,088,238 registrations from the 2026 registration exercise and flagged 1,545,052 records for various irregularities.
Of the flagged records, 1,277,252 were reportedly adjudicated as invalid and removed before the publication of the preliminary register, while about 267,800 were said to require further verification.
Ubani, however, cautioned against interpreting the figures as evidence that 1.5 million AI-generated voters had been discovered.
“Biometric screening can flag duplicate registrations, poor-quality records and other anomalies that do not necessarily establish deliberate fraud,” he said, adding that the scale of the records requiring investigation nevertheless demanded a full public accounting.
He said a fictitious entry in the register did not automatically translate into a fraudulent vote, noting that existing safeguards under the Electoral Act, including voter accreditation and biometric verification, remained important.
However, he warned that a compromised voter register could create vulnerabilities that should not be ignored.
He said investigators needed to determine whether false identities had resulted in the production of voter credentials, whether accreditation safeguards could be circumvented and whether special registration procedures for persons with disabilities had been abused.
Ubani called for the preservation of the complete preliminary register, publication of a detailed breakdown of identified irregularities, an independent technical audit of the voter registration platform and accountability for officials found culpable.
He also urged the National Assembly to conduct public hearings and require INEC to explain the failures, establish reporting deadlines and provide Nigerians with an effective mechanism to verify their registration details and challenge fraudulent entries.
He said safeguards should also be strengthened to protect legitimate voters living with disabilities from being adversely affected by the controversy.
Ubani urged INEC to publish an independently reviewed account of the clean-up exercise before certifying the final voter register on December 15.
“If material concerns remain unresolved, the commission must explain them openly and pursue a lawful remedy. A deadline must never become an excuse for certifying a register whose integrity has not been adequately established,” he said.
