The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has rejected allegations by the African Democratic Congress (ADC) that its online pre-registration data for the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise was suspicious or manipulated.
Reacting to concerns raised by the ADC’s National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, who described figures from Osun State as “extraordinary” and inconsistent with demographic realities, INEC insisted the numbers were neither new nor unusual.
Abdullahi had questioned how Osun recorded nearly 400,000 new pre-registrations within seven days, exceeding its total new voters in the last four years. He also noted that the South West alone accounted for 67 per cent of nationwide pre-registrations, while regions such as the South East and North East recorded minimal figures.
However, INEC’s Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Rotimi Oyekanmi, dismissed the claims, describing them as misleading. He explained that Osun had consistently topped online registration numbers since 2021, citing verifiable data from previous CVR exercises.
According to Oyekanmi, when the online registration portal was first launched in June 2021, Osun led the table within the first 24 hours and maintained that position across multiple weeks. By April 2022, the state had amassed more than 700,000 online pre-registrations, the highest in the country.
“A simple check of past public records would have shown this trend. There is nothing extraordinary about Osun’s current numbers,” Oyekanmi said.
He also stressed that online pre-registration is only the first step, as applicants must still undergo in-person biometric capture and verification. INEC’s Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) is then used to detect multiple or fake entries before final inclusion in the voter register.
Oyekanmi pointed out that, despite inflated online figures in the past, due diligence had always filtered genuine voters. For instance, over 14 million Nigerians were added to the National Register of Voters before the 2019 elections, and another 9.4 million were verified ahead of the 2023 general polls, bringing the total to 93.4 million registered voters.
He urged political parties and stakeholders to rely on INEC’s official records rather than “speculation or conjecture” and reassured Nigerians that only eligible citizens, as defined by the Constitution and Electoral Act, would be included in the register.
Meanwhile, the ADC has continued to demand a forensic audit of the current data, alleging possible technical glitches or manipulation. The party also called on opposition groups and monitoring organisations to insist on greater accountability from INEC.
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