JUST IN: INEC deletes 1.6m invalid voter registrations

Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Joash Amupitan. Photo: INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission has removed 1,608,660 invalid registrations from the preliminary register of voters following a nationwide review of entries from the 2025/2026 Continuous Voter Registration exercise.

The commission also removed 876 records belonging to persons verified to be deceased, while 873 additional records of deceased persons were identified and removed, bringing the total number of deceased persons removed to 1,749.

INEC Chairman, Prof Joash Amupitan (SAN), disclosed this on Monday while briefing journalists on the outcome of the review of the preliminary register of voters.

He said the commission received 11,088,238 registration records from the three phases of the 2025/2026 CVR exercise.

According to him, INEC’s Automated Biometric Identification System initially flagged 1,545,052 records for further examination.

However, Amupitan clarified that being flagged by the automated system did not automatically make a registration invalid, as each case underwent further examination and authorised adjudication.

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The clean-up exercise followed complaints, claims and objections raised by Nigerians after the preliminary register was displayed nationwide between October 9 and 15, 2026.

The preliminary register attracted criticism after Nigerians and civil society organisations reportedly identified irregularities, including suspected artificial intelligence-generated photographs, duplicate registrations, unusual names and entries belonging to deceased persons.

Some of the questionable photographs circulated on social media, prompting concerns about the integrity of the voter registration process and INEC’s verification procedures.

The commission subsequently reviewed the register to investigate the complaints and remove entries found to be invalid.

Amupitan also disclosed that 54 registration officials across 10 states had been identified for possible disciplinary action, including prosecution, over their alleged involvement in irregularities uncovered during the exercise.

INEC said it would publish the cleaned-up register of voters on December 16, 2026, in accordance with the Electoral Act. More details later….