A former Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mike Igini, has urged the commission to republish its corrected voters’ register before December 15 to allow Nigerians scrutinise the document ahead of the 2027 general election.
Gatekeepers News reports that Igini’s call follows INEC’s announcement on Monday that it had removed more than 1,608,660 invalid registrations from the voters’ register after concerns were raised over its credibility.
The controversy has heightened concerns among political parties and members of the public about the commission’s preparedness to conduct free, fair and credible elections in 2027.
Speaking on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Wednesday, Igini commended INEC Chairman, Joash Amupitan, for acknowledging the errors identified in the register.
“The received wisdom as an election manager, which is what the chairman has done, is that it is better to acknowledge an error rather than to preserve it,” he said.
He described the voters’ register as the foundation of credible elections, adding that cases of invalid registrations were not entirely new to the electoral process.
“What has happened is not entirely new. Historically, we’ve had situations, particularly when we came on board in 2010,” the former REC said.
The legal practitioner noted that the Electoral Act requires INEC to publish the voters’ register at the ward level, stressing that making the revised document available online would promote transparency and public scrutiny.
He argued that the commission should upload the corrected register before producing the final version for the 2027 elections to strengthen public confidence in the electoral process.
“What is now expected to be done with this current register is to put it back on the website before the final production,” Igini said.
“On the 15th, to meet up that legal deadline, the register should again be put on the website for wider public interrogation on that register. That is the only thing that should be done before the 15th of December.”
Reacting to the investigation into AI-generated photographs discovered in the preliminary voters’ register published on INEC’s website, Igini said it was too early to assess the commission’s response because the cleanup exercise was still ongoing.
“We cannot talk about satisfaction now until the commission has come out with what they have done. I understand that the cleanup is still ongoing,” he said.
Igini also called for strict sanctions against individuals found responsible for manipulating the voters’ register, warning that electoral fraud could begin at the registration stage.
“Election rigging starts from voter’s registration where people try to populate the register,” he said.
He argued that accountability was essential to preventing electoral malpractice, lamenting what he described as a culture in which wrongdoing often goes unpunished.
“Society makes progress based on reward and sanction, but in our country today those who do the wrong thing are being rewarded. There is no sanction at all; we are completely in a state of anomie like a failed state,” he added.
The former electoral commissioner reiterated that republishing the corrected register would give Nigerians an opportunity to examine the document and help INEC rebuild public trust ahead of the 2027 general election.
