By Kingston Magare 30.10.2026
Former Vice-President and Africa Democratic Congress presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) fish out officials who tampered with the national voters’ registration data base ahead of the 2027 elections.
Atiku said in a statement that the officials needed to be prosecuted for inserting artificial intelligence AI generated images into the voters register. He also called for an independent forensic audit of the register.
“INEC has admitted that some AI-generated images are on the voter register and that registration officers introduced irregularities across the country.
“The Commission charged with protecting Nigerians’ votes has acknowledged that its own system was abused by those entrusted to operate it. This is a catastrophic failure of leadership and safeguards,” Atiku said in a statement signed by Phrank Shaibu, ADC director of strategic communication.
Atiku faulted INEC Chairman, Professor Joash Amupitan, over the commission’s explanation of how the register was compromised, insisting that identifying the irregularities without naming those responsible amounted to an evasion of accountability.
“If INEC knows how the register was compromised, it must disclose the evidence, identify every officer involved, and explain why they have not been suspended and prosecuted. Amupitan cannot admit the misconduct, withhold the perpetrators’ identities, and expect Nigerians to accept ignorance as an excuse. He must account for this failure now,” he said.
INEC director of information and communication technology Dr. Lawrence Bayode said Friday that some registration officers across the country used their login details to introduce questionable records into the database.
He said the commission discovered the irregularities through its Automated Biometric Identification System, which was used to examine the registration records.
“We have registration officers on the field. And these registration officers, they have login details to log into the system,” He told Arise TV.
“So what we have found is that some of these registration officers, not all of them now, some of them across the states nationwide, they’ve done different things to bring these irregularities onto the register
“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.”
The ICT director said the commission had been working to clean up the register even before publishing the preliminary version, adding that it was under pressure to complete the exercise within the statutory 90-day period.
INEC is expected to complete its verification, adjudication and data-cleanup processes before certifying the final Register of Voters on December 15, 2026.