The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is facing a credibility crisis after Nigerians discovered what appear to be artificial intelligence-generated names and photographs in the preliminary voters’ register published online on October 26, 2026. The discovery has raised serious questions about the integrity of the electoral process just months before the 2027 general elections.
Social media users were the first to flag the anomalies. One user, @VictorManjul, shared images of what he described as “special AI generated names” on the register, warning that “Millions of these names” existed and declaring that “INEC is compromised”. Other citizens reported missing names, duplicate entries, and photographs that did not resemble real people, with the most detailed complaints centred on polling units in Etsako West Local Government Area of Edo State.
INEC has since confirmed the irregularities are real. The commission’s Director of Information and Communication Technology, Dr Lawrence Bayode, admitted that some of its own registration officers were responsible. He explained that these officers used their official login credentials to access the registration portal and introduce questionable records into the database. “Some of these pictures are AI-generated. Some of them not AI-generated, but very bad registration. And this thing got into the register by the registration officers because they have access to register people,” Bayode said during an interview on Arise Television. He claimed the commission’s Automated Biometric Identification System detected the fraud, but he could not explain why the officers did it. “We know what they did. We know how they did it. But honestly, I don’t know why,” he said.
The admission has been met with widespread outrage. Lawyer and public affairs analyst Frank Tietie described INEC’s explanation as a “big problem” and a national security issue, questioning how an institution responsible for safeguarding Nigeria’s electoral process could allow compromised officers to generate fake voters. INEC Chairman Professor Joash Amupitan has said the commission is investigating the AI-generated photos and discrepancies, and has urged the public to participate in the claims and objections process before the final register is certified on December 15, 2026.
Political parties are not satisfied. The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has demanded an independent forensic audit of the voters’ register, accusing INEC of deliberate sabotage and questioning why no one has been arrested despite the commission’s admission that its own officials compromised the system. “If INEC knows that its own officials compromised the voters’ register with AI-generated photographs, why has nobody been arrested? Why have these individuals not been handed over for prosecution? What exactly is INEC waiting for?” the party asked. The Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) has also warned that INEC’s use of AI is not provided for in the Electoral Act and described it as another form of sophisticated rigging.
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has given President Bola Tinubu a seven-day ultimatum to direct the Nigeria Data Protection Commission to investigate the alleged manipulation of personal data in the register, warning that the reported irregularities raise serious concerns about the security and integrity of Nigerians’ personal data and the reliability of the voter register ahead of the 2027 elections.
The scale of the alleged fraud is staggering. Political parties and stakeholders have raised alarm that there may be at least 30 million fake entries in the register out of the officially declared 103 million names published by INEC. The commission has not disclosed how many records are affected, which states are involved, or whether any officers have been arrested or prosecuted. For a country whose democracy depends on the credibility of its voters’ register, the presence of AI-generated ghosts and compromised officials is not just a technical glitch. It is a fundamental betrayal of public trust.
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