By Myke Uzendu, Abuja
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced the removal of 1,609,553 records from the voters’ register following a nationwide cleaning exercise, including 1,608,660 confirmed invalid registrations and 873 records belonging to verified deceased persons.
The Commission also disclosed that 54 persons across 10 states had been identified as allegedly complicit in registration irregularities, adding that disciplinary action, including possible prosecution, would be considered against those found culpable.
INEC Chairman, Professor Joash Ojo Amupitan (SAN), made the disclosures on Monday while addressing a press conference on the display and publication of the Preliminary Register of Voters ahead of the 2027 general election.
Amupitan said the exercise followed complaints, claims and objections received after the Preliminary Register was displayed at the wards between October 9 and 15, 2026, and subsequently published online.
He explained that the complaints included allegations of manipulated photographs, duplicate registration attempts, unusual names and registration patterns, as well as the inclusion of deceased persons in the register.
According to him, some members of the public had alleged that the irregularities were deliberately introduced to compromise the 2027 general election.
The INEC chairman said the Commission waited for the expiration of the 14-day statutory period provided under Section 19(2) of the Electoral Act, 2026, before reviewing the complaints and determining the corrective measures required.
He disclosed that the Commission had concluded the cleaning exercise relating to the 2025/2026 Continuous Voter Registration (CVR), while final reconciliation, quality assurance and publication checks were ongoing ahead of the release of the Final Register on December 15, 2026.
Giving a breakdown of the exercise, Amupitan said INEC harvested 11,088,238 records from the three phases of the 2025/2026 CVR exercise, out of which its Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) initially flagged 1,545,052 records for examination.
He clarified that being flagged by the automated system did not automatically mean that a registration was invalid, as every case had to undergo authorised adjudication before a decision could be taken.
He said that before the publication of the Preliminary Register, 1,277,052 registrations had been confirmed invalid and excluded.
Following the display of the register and the complaints received from the public, another 268,000 cases underwent adjudication. Of these, 217,722 were confirmed invalid and removed, while 50,278 were cleared as valid and retained.
Amupitan added that further screening identified another 113,886 invalid registrations, which were also removed.
He said the cumulative number of confirmed invalid registrations removed after the claims and objections exercise stood at 331,608, in addition to the 873 verified deceased-voter records.
The chairman explained that the total number of records removed under the two categories was 1,609,553, comprising 1,608,660 invalid registrations and 873 deceased persons.
Amupitan said the Commission considered the scale of the irregularities serious enough to warrant an investigation into how they occurred and those responsible.
He disclosed that the technical assessment examined suspected multiple registrations, unusual registration patterns, substituted photographs and other irregularities associated with registration transactions.
According to him, the investigation revealed instances in which some registration personnel deliberately circumvented established procedures and abused provisions designed to accommodate exceptional registration circumstances, including those relating to persons with disabilities.
He said the affected records had been identified and subjected to review and remediation, while the personnel involved had been identified for administrative investigation.
The chairman added that 54 persons across 10 states had been identified as allegedly complicit in the infractions and would face appropriate disciplinary measures, including possible prosecution.
He said INEC was strengthening its registration controls through improved biometric capture, authentication and verification safeguards to prevent a recurrence.
The INEC chairman, however, warned that cleaning the records generated during the 2025/2026 CVR exercise alone would not resolve all the problems associated with the national register.
He said a significant number of the multiple-registration complaints and photographs circulated on social media related to historical records accumulated between 2011 and 2023.
Amupitan recalled that the Commission had announced plans in February 2026 to conduct a nationwide voter revalidation exercise to improve the accuracy and reliability of the register, particularly records captured using earlier generations of registration technology.
He said the exercise was intended to update biometric information, resolve registration inconsistencies and improve voter accreditation on election day.
However, following concerns by stakeholders that the exercise was too close to the 2027 general election and could affect the participation of eligible voters, INEC decided to postpone it until after the elections.
He stressed that the postponement did not suspend the Commission’s existing mechanisms for maintaining the integrity of the register, including biometric screening, adjudication and statutory claims and objections.
Amupitan said the Commission, at its meeting on Monday, November 9, 2026, decided to address duplications in the historical register, directing that cases already flagged through public complaints and obvious irregularities be removed after proper verification.
On complaints by some voters that their names were missing from the Preliminary Register, Amupitan said the Commission discovered that most of the affected persons had registered between 2011 and 2023.
He explained that some voters who relocated to new areas failed to transfer their registration but instead registered afresh.
According to him, the new registrations were voided by ABIS because they were identified as duplicates, while the voters’ original records remained in their previous locations.
He therefore advised affected voters to check the register at their former registration locations.
On the distribution of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), the INEC chairman said the distribution of cards from Phases One and Two of the CVR exercise, alongside transferred PVCs, was ongoing at local government areas across the country.
He said some PVCs produced under the third and final phase were being delivered and would be dispatched to states the following week.
Amupitan added that distribution would return to Registration Areas nationwide from December 1, 2026, urging those who registered during the third phase to exercise patience because the cards were produced outside Nigeria.
He assured Nigerians that the Commission remained committed to removing invalid entries without wrongly excluding eligible voters.
The chairman also said additional safeguards would be deployed on election day to prevent multiple accreditation and voting.
He explained that the Standard Operating Procedures for Presiding Officers and the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) require voters to be physically present at their designated polling units and undergo biometric authentication through fingerprints or facial recognition.
According to him, the process verifies voters against the register and records successful accreditation, with controls designed to prevent multiple accreditation by the same person.
Amupitan said the measures, together with procedures for issuing ballot papers, would provide additional protection against multiple voting.
He assured the public that INEC would continue to communicate verifiable aggregate results of its register-cleaning exercise while protecting personal information and the integrity of ongoing investigations.
