The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has removed 1,608,660 invalid registrations from the preliminary voter register after a nationwide review of entries recorded during the 2025/2026 Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise.
The commission also removed 1,749 records belonging to deceased persons after verification, including 876 initially identified and 873 additional records discovered during the review.
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.
Amupitan explained that the National Register of Voters contained records accumulated from successive registration and continuous voter registration exercises conducted since 2011, using different technologies and operational standards.
He said the commission’s Automated Biometric Identification System initially flagged 1,545,052 records for further examination, stressing that being flagged did not automatically mean a registration was invalid.
According to him, each flagged record underwent further examination and authorized adjudication before a decision was reached.
He disclosed that 1,277,052 registrations were initially confirmed invalid and excluded before the publication of the preliminary register.
Following complaints, claims and objections submitted during the seven-day public display exercise held between October 9 and 15, 2026, the commission subjected an additional 268,000 cases to adjudication.
Of the figure, 217,722 registrations were confirmed invalid and removed, while 50,278 were cleared as valid and retained.
Amupitan said further screening identified another 113,886 invalid registrations, bringing the additional number of invalid records removed after the initial exclusion to 331,608.
He explained that the 331,608 records were removed in addition to the 1,277,052 previously excluded, bringing the total number of invalid registrations removed to 1,608,660.
The chairman said the clean-up exercise followed public concerns over irregularities discovered after the preliminary register was displayed nationwide.
He noted that under Section 19(2) of the Electoral Act 2026, the commission was required to consider objections, claims and complaints submitted by members of the public within 14 days after displaying the preliminary register.
The preliminary register had attracted criticism from Nigerians and civil society organisations over alleged irregularities, including suspected artificial intelligence-generated photographs, duplicate registrations, unusual names and entries belonging to deceased persons.
Amupitan said the commission’s technical assessment also uncovered deliberate attempts to circumvent established voter registration procedures, including the misuse of provisions designed for exceptional registration circumstances, particularly those relating to persons with disabilities.
He disclosed that 54 persons across 10 states had been identified as allegedly complicit in the infractions, adding that disciplinary measures, including possible prosecution, would be pursued.
The INEC chairman, however, cautioned that the latest exercise had not completely addressed integrity concerns surrounding the national voters’ register, noting that many irregularities predated the 2025/2026 registration exercise.
He said most complaints involving multiple registrations and suspicious photographs circulated on social media concerned historical records captured between 2011 and 2023.
Amupitan explained that the commission’s decision to postpone the proposed nationwide voter revalidation exercise until after the 2027 general elections did not prevent it from using existing mechanisms to identify and remove invalid registrations.
He added that INEC had resolved to address outstanding duplications in the historical register, directing that records flagged through public complaints and obvious cases identified internally should be removed after proper verification.
The commission said it would publish the cleaned-up final register of voters in December ahead of the 2027 general elections.
