The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has removed more than 1.6 million invalid records from the national register of voters following a clean-up of the 2025/2026 Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise, while identifying 54 registration personnel in 10 states for alleged complicity in the irregularities.
The Commission also disclosed plans to tackle longstanding duplications in the voters’ register dating back to 2011, warning that cleaning up the latest registration exercise alone would not resolve the integrity challenges confronting the national register ahead of the 2027 general elections.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, SAN, made the disclosures on Monday, November 9, 2026, at a press conference at the Commission’s headquarters on the display and publication of the Preliminary Register of Voters.
He said the 1,609,553 records removed comprised 1,608,660 confirmed invalid registrations and 873 records of verified deceased persons, which were treated as a separate category.
According to him, the Commission harvested 11,088,238 records from the three phases of the 2025/2026 CVR exercise, with its Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) initially flagging 1,545,052 records for further examination.
Amupitan, however, cautioned that being flagged by the automated system did not automatically render a registration invalid, explaining that each case required proper review and adjudication.
“A flagged record is not necessarily an invalid registration: automated screening identifies matters requiring review, while authorised adjudication determines the outcome,” he said.
The INEC chairman disclosed that 1,277,052 registrations had been confirmed invalid and excluded before the publication of the Preliminary Register.
He said another 268,000 cases were subjected to adjudication following claims, objections and complaints received during the public display of the register. Of these, 217,722 were confirmed invalid and removed, while 50,278 were cleared as valid and retained. A further screening exercise uncovered 113,886 additional invalid registrations, bringing the post-display removals to 331,608.
“The Commission confirms that the current register-cleaning exercise for the 2025/2026 Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) has been concluded,” Amupitan said.
On the alleged involvement of registration personnel, he said a technical assessment examined suspected multiple registrations, unusual registration patterns, substituted photographs and irregularities in registration transactions.
The assessment, he said, revealed instances in which some personnel deliberately circumvented established procedures and abused provisions intended to accommodate exceptional registration circumstances, including persons with disabilities.
He said the affected records had been identified and subjected to review and remediation, while the personnel involved had been listed for further administrative investigation.
“Fifty-four persons cutting across ten States have been identified as complicit and necessary disciplinary action will be taken against them, including possible prosecution,” he stated.
To prevent a recurrence, the Commission is strengthening its registration controls through enhanced biometric capture, authentication and verification safeguards.
Amupitan explained that INEC waited for the expiration of the 14-day statutory period provided under Section 19(2) of the Electoral Act, 2026, before making the latest announcement.
He said the Final Register of Voters would be published on December 15, 2026, adding that final reconciliation, quality assurance and publication checks were ongoing to ensure that all approved changes were properly reflected.
However, the chairman warned that the exercise had not addressed the wider problem of questionable entries in the national register, particularly duplications inherited from previous registration exercises between 2011 and 2023.
He said most of the duplicate names and photographs circulating on social media related to the old register rather than the recently concluded CVR exercise.
“Cleaning the register of only the 2025/2026 Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise alone will not solve the problem identified,” he said.
According to him, the national register had evolved through successive registration and voter registration update exercises since 2011, using different technologies, operational arrangements and quality standards.
He noted that significant historical integrity concerns remained and required a systematic nationwide response.
Consequently, the Commission, at its meeting on Monday, resolved to address the duplications in the older register, with cases already flagged through public complaints, as well as obvious cases identified internally, to be removed after proper verification.
INEC had announced a nationwide voter revalidation exercise in February 2026 but subsequently postponed it until after the 2027 general elections following concerns from stakeholders about its proximity to the polls and the potential impact on voter participation.
Amupitan, however, maintained that the postponement did not suspend the Commission’s responsibility to protect the integrity of the register, noting that existing mechanisms, including biometric screening, adjudication and statutory claims and objections, remained operational.
On complaints by some voters that their names were missing from the register, the chairman explained that most of the affected persons had registered between 2011 and 2023 but subsequently registered afresh instead of applying for a transfer to their new locations.
He said ABIS invalidated the subsequent registrations, while their original records remained at their previous registration locations.
He therefore advised affected voters to check their former polling locations to establish whether their names were still on the register.
On the distribution of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), Amupitan said distribution of cards from Phases One and Two, as well as transferred PVCs, was ongoing at local government area offices nationwide.
He disclosed that some cards produced under the third and final phase were being delivered and would be dispatched to states by the following week.
According to him, distribution would return to Registration Areas from December 1, 2026, while appealing to third-phase registrants to exercise patience because the cards were produced outside Nigeria.
The INEC chairman also assured Nigerians that the Commission had adequate safeguards against multiple voting on election day.
He explained that under the Standard Operating Procedures for Presiding Officers, supported by the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), every voter must be physically present at the designated polling unit and undergo biometric authentication through fingerprint or facial recognition before being accredited.
“The Commission remains committed both to removing confirmed invalid entries and to protecting eligible Nigerians from wrongful exclusion,” he said.
He added that INEC would continue to publish verifiable aggregate information on the clean-up exercise while safeguarding personal data and the integrity of ongoing investigations.
