A former official of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, has questioned how 1.5 million suspicious records entered the commission’s voter register despite its biometric verification measures.
Osaze-Uzzi raised the concerns during an interview on Arise Television, saying INEC must explain how such irregularities occurred despite safeguards designed to prevent multiple voter registrations.
He noted that the law clearly requires voters to be Nigerian citizens aged 18 and above, while registration involves physical appearance and biometric data capture.
The former INEC official said the commission should also clarify whether its recent verification exercise covered only the 2026 Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) or the entire voter database dating back to 2011.
He identified the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) and artificial intelligence as tools that should help detect duplicate registrations and other irregularities.
Osaze-Uzzi questioned how questionable entries could have entered the database despite the technology available to the commission.
Meanwhile, INEC’s Director of Information and Communication Technology, Lawrence Bayode, disclosed that the commission’s Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) flagged 1,545,052 records out of 11.08 million registrations recorded during the 2026 CVR.
Of the flagged records, 1,277,252 were confirmed invalid and removed, while about 268,000 remained subject to further verification.
Bayode also alleged that some registration officials abused their access to INEC’s system to introduce fraudulent records, including entries with questionable photographs and manipulated biometric details.
The development has raised concerns about the integrity of the voter register ahead of the 2027 general elections.
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