With exactly 77 days remaining before the 2027 general elections, political stakeholders across Nigeria are locked in a fierce debate over the institutional readiness of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). This tension follows the recent discovery of artificial intelligence- generated photographs and other data anomalies embedded within the commission's preliminary voters' register, casting doubts on database security.
The preliminary database, uploaded on October 26, 2026, accounts for over 103.4 million registered citizens. Dr Lawrence Bayode, the commission's Director of Information and Communication Technology, confirmed that rogue registration officers abused official credentials to introduce unauthorized entries, though he assured the public that the perpetrators have been identified.
How are political parties reacting to the register anomalies?
Reactions from various political platforms have varied sharply. The Labour Party (LP) demanded an immediate overhaul of the commission's technical framework. Ken Asogwa, the party's National Publicity Secretary, expressed profound worry that such vulnerabilities persist under the leadership of Professor Joash Amupitan, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, urging the electoral body to return to the drawing board to restore public trust.
Conversely, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) adopted a more moderate stance. Jungudo Haruna Mohammed, the PDP's National Publicity Secretary, argued that the anomalies should not be blown out of proportion, emphasizing that the document in question is only a preliminary draft and praising INEC for openly acknowledging the flaw.
Meanwhile, the Action Democratic Party (ADP) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) demanded rigorous, independent digital audits. Comrade Mark Adebayo, representing the SDP presidential campaign council, alleged that synthetic identities created by generative algorithms might have infiltrated the system to bloat voter numbers, calling for transparent stress-tests of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).
What steps is INEC taking to clean up the database?
Addressing members of an ECOWAS Pre-Election Fact-Finding Mission led by former Sierra Leonean Vice-President Victor Bockarie Foh in Abuja, INEC Chairman Professor Joash Amupitan announced that the commission has already received over 4,800 claims and approximately 600 formal objections regarding the preliminary register.
Amupitan assured stakeholders that all identified errors, including concerns about deceased individuals remaining on the database, will be thoroughly purged before the final certified register is published on December 15, 2026. The electoral agency confirmed that presidential and National Assembly polls are locked in for Saturday, January 16, 2027, followed by governorship and state assembly elections on Saturday, February 6, 2027, spanning 176,846 polling units across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.