INEC Blames Officers for AI Photos in Voter Register

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says the AI-generated faces that Nigerians spotted in its preliminary voter register were put there by some of its own registration officers, who used their personal logins to the registration system. INEC's director of ICT, Lawrence Bayode, gave the explanation on Arise Television's Morning Show on Friday, 30 October, Pulse reports.

"Some of these pictures are AI-generated. Some of them not AI-generated, but very bad registration," Bayode said. Officers deployed across the states have login details to the system, he explained, and some of them, "not all of them", used that access to add questionable entries. "We know what they did. We know how they did it," he said, but he did not say why they did it, how many records are affected or whether anyone has been sanctioned.

Caught by the biometric system

According to Bayode, the entries came to light when INEC ran its Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) over the registration records. ABIS compares the faces and fingerprints captured at registration so that one person cannot be enrolled twice; here it also exposed photos that did not belong to real registrants.

The problem became public after INEC put the preliminary register online on 26 October. Screenshots of suspected AI-generated faces, said to come from Etsako West in Edo State, spread on social media, alongside complaints about duplicate entries, dead people still listed and registered voters missing. The same register had been on physical display at registration areas from 9 to 15 October.

In a statement on 27 October signed by Mohammed Kudu Haruna, who chairs its Information and Voter Education Committee, INEC said it was "examining the circumstances surrounding the suspicious photographs" and possible technical or procedural lapses, Sahara Reporters reports. "The online publication represents the original preliminary register and does not reflect all ongoing data-cleanup activities," the commission said, adding that "the preliminary register is not the final certified register." The final Register of Voters is due to be certified on 15 December 2026.

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A data protection question

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) argues that INEC cannot investigate itself. In a letter dated 31 October and signed by its deputy director, Kolawole Oluwadare, it asks President Bola Tinubu to direct the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) and its head, Vincent Olatunji, to run an independent forensic investigation, The Telegraph reports.

SERAP wants the NDPC to examine INEC's databases for unlawful access or alteration, decide whether a personal data breach occurred, and check INEC against Sections 24, 39 and 65 of the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023, which cover data accuracy, security and the definition of a breach. It also wants voters able to check and correct their records, and the findings published. An internal INEC review "cannot substitute for the NDPC's independent exercise of its statutory data-protection mandate," the letter says. SERAP says it will consider legal action if nothing is done within seven days.

Neither the NDPC nor the Presidency had responded publicly by Sunday evening.