2027 elections: INEC removes 1.6m from voters’ register

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has eliminated 1,609,553 invalid and deceased information from the nationwide voter register forward of the 2027 basic elections.

The INEC Chairman, Professor Joash Ojo Amupitan, SAN, disclosed this whereas addressing a press convention in Abuja, the place he additionally defined why some Nigerians who registered through the third section of the Continuous Voter Registration are but to obtain their Permanent Voter Cards.

Amupitan mentioned the fee eliminated 1,608,660 confirmed invalid registrations and 873 verified information belonging to deceased voters as a part of its ongoing efforts to scrub up the register and strengthen the credibility of the electoral course of.

He mentioned the fee’s response to recognized irregularities had been based mostly on evidence-led investigations, corrective measures and stronger preventive controls, including that INEC would proceed to publish verifiable mixture figures whereas defending private data.

PVC manufacturing, distribution ongoing

On the delay within the manufacturing and distribution of PVCs for many who registered within the third and last section of the CVR, Amupitan mentioned the method was nonetheless ongoing.

He defined that the distribution of PVCs for the primary and second phases, in addition to transferred PVCs, was ongoing at numerous native authorities areas throughout the nation.

According to him, among the PVCs produced for the third section had been already being delivered and could be dispatched to states by the next week.

He added that from December 1, 2026, distribution would resume on the Registration Areas nationwide, urging those that registered through the third section to stay affected person as a result of the manufacturing of the playing cards was being carried out exterior Nigeria.

INEC had recorded 2,970,257 registrations through the third section earlier than making use of its de-duplication course of.

The clean-up adopted public considerations and scrutiny of anomalies detected through the show of the preliminary voters register between October 9 and 15, 2026.

Audit uncovers a number of registrations

Amupitan mentioned a technical audit utilizing the Automated Biometric Identification System uncovered what the fee described as systemic manipulation of the voter registration course of.

The audit reportedly recognized uncommon registration patterns, substituted pictures and fraudulent a number of registrations, prompting the fee to take away the affected information from the register.

The INEC chairman additionally disclosed that among the irregularities had been linked to the actions of personnel who abused their official positions and bypassed established procedures.

He mentioned 54 INEC employees members throughout 10 states had been recognized for allegedly exploiting particular provisions meant for susceptible residents, together with individuals with disabilities.

According to him, disciplinary measures and attainable prosecution had been initiated towards the affected officers.

Amupitan additionally addressed questions regarding courtroom instances involving political actors, insisting that INEC would solely act on authenticated authorized paperwork and never stories circulating on social media.

“On ADC/Atiku: as of today, we have not received the Certified True Copy of the court judgment and we don’t act based on what we see on social media,” he mentioned.

Legacy information beneath evaluate

The fee additional disclosed that the current 2025/2026 CVR clean-up didn’t utterly eradicate historic irregularities within the nationwide register.

INEC mentioned legacy knowledge carried over from registration workout routines carried out between 2011 and 2023 nonetheless contained information flagged for attainable duplication.

The fee’s board has consequently directed that such flagged entries be subjected to verification and expunged the place crucial.

Amupitan assured Nigerians that extra safeguards would stay in place forward of the 2027 elections, together with obligatory bodily presence throughout registration and biometric authentication via the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System.

The BVAS system, which makes use of fingerprints or facial recognition for voter accreditation, is anticipated to assist forestall a number of voting and unauthorised accreditation through the elections.