The Independent National Electoral Commission has admitted that some of its registration officers across the country were compromised and used their official access to introduce irregularities, including suspected artificial intelligence-generated photographs, into the preliminary voters’ register.
The commission’s Director of Information and Communication Technology, Dr Lawrence Bayode, made the disclosure on Friday, October 30, 2026, while appearing on Arise Television’s Morning Show. His admission followed questions from journalist Rufai Oseni, who sought an explanation for how suspected AI-generated photographs found their way into INEC’s voter registration database.
Responding, Bayode acknowledged that the irregularities were not restricted to a particular state, revealing that some registration officers in different parts of the country had been involved. According to him, the officers allegedly exploited their official login credentials, which gave them access to the voter registration system, to introduce questionable entries.
“What we have found out was that some of these registration officers are not only in the place that we are seeing, even on social media, some of them, not all of them now, some of them across the states, nationwide. They’ve done different things to bring these irregularities onto the register,” Bayode said.
He explained that registration officers have access to the commission’s registration platform through individual login credentials, which allow them to capture and upload the details and photographs of eligible voters. However, investigations by the commission reportedly revealed that some officers abused the access entrusted to them, resulting in questionable photographs and other irregularities appearing in the preliminary register.
Bayode clarified that while some of the photographs were suspected to have been generated using artificial intelligence, others were simply products of poor registration practices. “Some of these pictures are AI-generated. Some of them are not AI-generated, but very bad registration, and this thing got into the register by the registration officers, and because they have access to register people,” he explained.
The ICT director further disclosed that the commission’s Automated Biometric Identification System detected several questionable entries during its examination of the registration database. According to Bayode, the automated checks enabled INEC to identify suspicious records and establish how some of the irregularities were introduced into the system before the preliminary voters’ register was made public. “When the ABIS was run on the system, we saw these people, we know what they did. We know how they did it, but honestly, I don’t know why,” he stated.
The disclosure comes amid growing public concern over the credibility of the preliminary voters’ register released by INEC, particularly following the circulation of photographs and identities suspected to be AI-generated. The commission published the preliminary register online on October 26, 2026, after initially delaying its release for days. Screenshots circulated on social media showed photographs suspected to be AI-generated attached to voter records, with the most detailed complaints centred on polling units in Etsako West Local Government Area of Edo State. Other concerns included alleged duplicate entries and complaints by some registered voters that their details were missing from the online register.
INEC had earlier explained that the online version was the same preliminary register physically displayed at registration areas nationwide between October 9 and 15, 2026. The commission said the online publication was meant to allow Nigerians to inspect the register and raise objections before the final register is certified.
Bayode said INEC had begun cleaning up the register before publishing its preliminary version, noting that the commission was working within the statutory 90-day period for the exercise. He could not, however, establish the motives behind the actions of the officers allegedly involved, nor did he confirm whether all the disputed records had been fully resolved.
The controversy has deepened public distrust in the commission ahead of the 2027 general elections. The African Democratic Congress has demanded an independent forensic audit of the voters’ register, while other groups have called for the prosecution of any INEC officials found to have manipulated the database. The Action Alliance has asked INEC Chairman Professor Joash Amupitan to probe and sack any staff involved in using artificial intelligence to duplicate National Identification Numbers in the voters’ register.
INEC has not announced any disciplinary action against the officers implicated in the irregularities. The commission has also not disclosed how many officers are involved, which states they operated in, or whether the affected entries have been removed from the database. For now, the commission says it is cleaning up the register before the final certification on December 15, 2026.
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