2027: Opposition parties battle INEC over voters’ data

By Omeiza Ajayi, John Alechenu & Luminous Jannamike

ABUJA — The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC and opposition political parties, yesterday, disagreed over alleged irregularities in the ongoing voters pre-registration exercise and figures coming out.

According to the African Democratic Congress, ADC, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Labour Party, LP, and former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the new voters pre-registration figure showing massive listings in the South-West and specifically, Osun State, compared to other parts of the country, is worrisome and portends danger for the 2027 polls.

But INEC said it is normal, going by past records.

Meanwhile, forensic experts in the country have declared their readiness to help the commission address the disparities.

At press time, the ruling APC had yet to speak on the issue.

No irregularities in Osun Voter Pre-Registration Figures — INEC

“There is nothing extraordinary about the online pre-registration data released by the Commission. Nothing can be further from the truth,” Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Mr. Rotimi Oyekanmi, said in a statement.

He explained that the commission launched the current Continuous Voter Registration, CVR, exercise on August 18, 2025, with online pre-registration, followed by in-person registration on August 25.

According to him, INEC released figures for the first week, showing a total of 1,379,342 online pre-registrants nationwide.

“Osun State led with 393,269 registrants, followed by Lagos State with 222,205, while the Federal Capital Territory was third with 107,682.

“Within the first 24 hours of launching the portal on June 28, 2021, 59,331 accounts were created. By the second week on July 21, 2021, Osun led with 154,893 pre-registrations.

“By the eighth week on August 23, 2021, Osun still led with 365,412. At the conclusion of the exercise in April 2022, Osun was ahead of all states with 708,782 registrations.

“If the party were proactive enough, a simple search of past records already in the public domain would have revealed these facts.

“Throughout the last CVR exercise, the commission displayed the preliminary register for claims and objections, while applying due diligence to ensure only eligible voters were included. After these processes, over 9.4 million new voters were added to the register, bringing the total to 93,469,008 for the 2023 general election.”

INEC maintained that it is not its responsibility to speculate on why one state records more registrants than others, but assured Nigerians of its commitment to transparency.

“Our duty as a commission, which we take seriously, is to ensure that only real persons who meet the criteria stipulated in the 1999 Constitution and the Electoral Act 2022 are allowed to register,” Oyekanmi stressed.

“The commission will continue to provide timely updates on the progress of the current CVR. We appeal to all well-meaning citizens to be circumspect in going public with information when authentic and verifiable data is readily available,” Oyekanmi said.

Polls’re in danger —ADC

The ADC warned that the 2027 general elections could be compromised if the ‘statistically implausible’ voter registration figures released by the electoral umpire are not urgently addressed.

In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the party said the figures from Osun State and the South-West zone defied historical patterns and demographic realities, raising doubts about the credibility of the electoral process.

According to the ADC, INEC’s report showed that Osun State recorded 393,269 pre-registrations in just one week.

The party pointed out that this figure was higher than the 275,815 new voters recorded in the state over the entire four-year period between 2019 and 2023.

“Even at its peak of political mobilisation in 2022, Osun has never produced more than 823,124 votes cast in a governorship election. Now, by some miracle, nearly 20 percent of all eligible adults in the state have rushed to register. This is not just unusual; it is statistically implausible,” the statement read.

The ADC also noted that the South-West zone alone accounted for 848,359 pre-registrations, representing 67 per cent of the national total. By comparison, the South-East recorded just 1,998 pre-registrations, while five states: Ebonyi, Imo, Enugu, Abia and Adamawa, recorded a combined total of 4,153.

“These fantastic figures suggest either another technical glitch in INEC’s digital registration system, or a more troubling possibility of deliberate manipulation of data to prepare the ground for a sinister agenda in the coming elections. In either case, INEC has explanations to give,” Abdullahi said.

Warning that the voters’ register forms the foundation of elections, the ADC stressed that anomalies in the data could undermine public trust in the democratic process.

“We must be clear, the voters’ register is the foundation of the entire electoral process. If the foundation is compromised, it raises questions about the integrity of the elections. Nigerians still remember the bitter consequences of flawed voter rolls and technical glitches in past elections. Our democracy cannot withstand another one,” the party cautioned.

Forensic audit

The ADC called on INEC to urgently conduct and publish a forensic audit of the first-week registration data, including a state-by-state breakdown of both physical and online registrations.

It also urged the commission to release server logs, bandwidth distribution records, and regional access reports for the registration portal.

The party further invited the international community to take an early interest in the developments and warned that ignoring such red flags could destabilise the country.

“Silence in the face of these anomalies will amount to complicity. History has shown that when questions about the voters’ register are left unanswered, the consequences go beyond politics; they touch on national stability itself. The time to act is now,” the party warned.

INEC’s body language frightening – LP

On its part, the LP expressed worry over yet-to-be-refuted claims that the INEC was already pandering to the whims of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, ahead of the 2027 elections.

According to the LP, there are concerns that the electoral management body is giving preference to states in regions they believe are strongholds of the ruling party in the ongoing voters’ registration exercise.

Interim National Publicity Secretary of the party, Tony Akeni, in a telephone chat with Vanguard, said: “We call on all Nigerians of goodwill in the civil society, the media, and political space to be vigilant. Reports reaching us indicate frightening attempts to rig the 2027 elections before Election Day.

“There are already concerns over the ongoing voter registration exercise. We implore Nigerians to be vigilant so that we don’t have a repeat of having ‘the late Michael Jackson, American boxer, Mike Tyson’ and the like appearing on our voters register.

“We also are yet to understand the plot to register inmates in our correctional facilities when law

abiding citizens are yet to be given their constitutionally guaranteed rights to register, vote and seek to be voted for.”

Voters’ figure in Osun ‘statistically implausible’ — PDP

In like manner, the PDP expressed concerns over suspicious figures emerging from the ongoing continuous voters’ registration exercise, warning that weak institutions and political manipulation can undermine the credibility of Nigeria’s 2027 elections.

PDP Deputy National Legal Adviser, Mr. Okechukwu Osuoha, in a chat with Vanguard, described the sharp rise in new registrations in some states, particularly Osun, as an anomaly that reflects deep flaws in the country’s governance structures.

“In Nigeria, our institutions are not strong. That is why policies and programmes are often encumbered and manipulated. Those in power can influence electoral officers in their states to undermine the process. If our institutions were strong, like in the Western world, nobody within INEC would allow the system to be compromised,” he said.

Osuoha pointed out that while continuous voter registration is a normal exercise before elections, the numbers being reported in certain states defy logic.

“For instance, in one state, nearly 400,000 new registrations were recorded in a single week, while the combined total for several other states barely reached 4,500. This is a clear sign that something is wrong,” he said.

He added that these trends are not new, recalling past manipulations of both census figures and election results.

“When they do elections in Kano, you see them coming out with over two million votes, while in my state, we struggle to reach even 800,000. The same thing happens with population counts. This shows a lack of transparency and honesty in our system,” Osuoha told Vanguard.

Atiku demands probe into voters’ figures in Osun

Echoing similar views, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar demanded an urgent investigation into ‘contrived’ voter registration figures emerging from Osun State, warning that the credibility of Nigeria’s electoral process risks being undermined if the anomaly is not addressed.

His Media Adviser, Mazi Paul Ibe, told Vanguard in Abuja, yesterday, that Atiku is deeply concerned about the sharp contrast between Osun’s new registration figures and those recorded in several other states.

“Yes, His Excellency is, of course, concerned about it,” Ibe said, “Any attempt, any plan, or any agenda to inflate figures in particular states, or across the country, should be investigated. There should be an investigation so that no one is left in doubt, and so that the figures published by INEC are seen as genuine, not contrived.”

He stressed that swift action is vital to safeguard public confidence in the process ahead of the 2027 elections.

“That is important. It needs to be investigated without delay. There is an urgency to this because what we are trying to do is remove every obstacle that could undermine the integrity of the democratic process ahead of the 2027 general elections,” he said.

Amend Electoral Act, stop manual collation in elections

Relatedly, Atiku has also called for urgent amendments to the 2022 Electoral Act to end manual accreditation, transmission, and collation of election results, warning that Nigeria’s democracy risks further decline unless far-reaching reforms are implemented.

In a statement he personally signed, Atiku urged that provisions of the law be strengthened to mandate the exclusive use of technology, particularly the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, and electronic transmission of results, with no room for discretion by the INEC.

“The envisaged electoral and judicial reforms will return the power to the people to choose their leaders and not a conclave of interested parties,” Atiku said.

He noted that although the enthusiasm of Nigerians in the ongoing continuous voter registration exercise is commendable, voter registration alone is insufficient without robust reforms to safeguard electoral integrity, promote judicial independence, and strengthen public confidence in the process.

Over time, he argued, the quality of Nigeria’s elections has continued to deteriorate.

He cited the 2023 general elections, in which out of 93.47 million registered voters, only 24.9 million participated in the presidential and National Assembly polls, representing just 26.72 per cent turnout, the lowest since the return to democracy in 1999.

“Something needs to be done to check this slide if citizens are to continue to have an appetite for the democratic process and the prospects that it holds,” Atiku said.

The former Vice President stressed that issues surrounding BVAS, electronic transmission of results, and other related matters must be constitutionally and legally entrenched, rather than left to the interpretation of judges.

Quoting Prof. Chidi Odinkalu’s book, The Selectorate: When Judges Topple the People, Atiku warned: “Judges, once constrained arbiters of electoral disputes, have become increasingly unconstrained in determining who holds power, shifting legitimacy from voters to the courts.

“In some cases, this influence has extended beyond the courtroom, creating a system where a small, connected elite decides leadership under the cover of legal process.”

To this end, Atiku outlined nine key reforms he said must be included in the Electoral Act.

These include mandatory use of BVAS for accreditation and results upload, compulsory electronic transmission of results from polling units to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (iREV), and collation of results at all levels strictly on the basis of electronically transmitted results.

“At no point shall manual accreditation of voters, transmission of results, and collation of results be allowed,” he declared.

He further proposed that the positions of INEC Chairman, Resident Electoral Commissioners, and National Commissioners be subjected to democratic voting by the people, rather than presidential appointment.

We’re ready to help INEC address disparities – Forensic experts

Meanwhile, the Chartered Institute of Forensics and Certified Fraud Investigators of Nigeria has pledged support to the INEC to tackle disparities in voter registration figures across the country, urging the deployment of technology and forensic tools to safeguard the credibility of the process.

Dr Iliyasu Gashinbaki, president of the Institute, said in an exclusive interview with Vanguard in Abuja that the body will not be drawn into partisan debates but is prepared to work with INEC to strengthen electoral integrity.

“Well, we do not want to dabble in political issues like that. Our role is to help INEC do the right thing, deploy technology, and apply forensic methods. That is our focus,” he explained.

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