THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has dismissed concerns raised by the African Democratic Congress (ADC) over voter registration figures released in its first-week report of the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise.
News Point Nigeria reported that the ADC had faulted the numbers from Osun State, describing them as “suspicious” and inconsistent with demographic realities, after nearly 400,000 new registrations were reportedly recorded in just seven days.
In a statement on Thursday, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, warned that such anomalies, if unchecked, could undermine public confidence in Nigeria’s electoral process.
But in a swift response, the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, rejected the claims, insisting that there was nothing extraordinary about the Osun numbers.
According to him, the pattern is consistent with past exercises, particularly in 2021, when Osun State also led the country during the early phases of online pre-registration.
“Interestingly, Osun State led with 154,893 pre-registrations at the time (2021). By the third week, 232,880 persons had pre-registered there, and by the eighth week, Osun still topped with 365,412. At the end of the exercise in April 2022, Osun had 708,782 registrations — the highest in the country,” Oyekanmi explained.
He further noted that a quick look at publicly available records would have provided clarity, rather than fueling unnecessary suspicion.
Oyekanmi reminded political actors that voter registration has always been subjected to multiple layers of verification.
In the 2019 elections, after a rigorous clean-up exercise, 14 million new voters were added to the register, increasing the figure to 84 million.
After the 2021/2022 CVR, another 9.4 million eligible voters were verified and included, bringing the total register to 93.4 million ahead of the 2023 polls.
He stressed that only real persons who meet the constitutional and legal criteria are ultimately retained on the national register.
“All pre-registrants must still appear physically at designated centres for biometric capture. We also display preliminary registers for public scrutiny and apply our Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) to weed out duplicates,” he said.
Giving an update on the ongoing exercise, Oyekanmi revealed that between August 18 and 24, 2025, a total of 1,379,342 Nigerians pre-registered online.
Osun State led with 393,269 registrations, followed by Lagos State with 222,205, and the Federal Capital Territory with 107,682.
“These numbers are consistent with Osun’s history of strong participation during registration drives,” Oyekanmi noted.
INEC urged political parties and stakeholders to exercise restraint in making public statements that could erode public trust in the electoral process.
“We appeal to all well-meaning citizens to be circumspect in going public with information based on conjecture, when they can rely on authentic and verifiable data from our official records,” Oyekanmi cautioned.
The Commission also reiterated its commitment to transparency, promising to continue publishing weekly updates on both online and in-person voter registration figures across the country.