A former National Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Festus Okoye, has expressed concerns over the credibility of Nigeria’s current voters’ register ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Okoye said the existing register could not be considered entirely clean or reliable but maintained that INEC would have to use it for the forthcoming elections because there was insufficient time to replace it before the polls.
Speaking during an interview on Channels Television’s *Politics Today* on Tuesday, he argued that Nigeria should compile an entirely new biometric voters’ register immediately after the 2027 general elections.
According to him, the current database contains integrity concerns that could undermine public confidence in the electoral process.
He said there was little that could be done at this stage to address all the problems before the next general elections, insisting that the country would have to proceed with the existing register.
His comments come amid growing concerns over irregularities in voter registration, including duplicate entries, questionable photographs and records belonging to deceased persons.
INEC Chairman, Professor Joash Amupitan, recently disclosed that the commission had removed 1,608,660 invalid registrations from the 2025/2026 Continuous Voter Registration exercise. Another 873 records belonging to verified deceased persons were also removed.
The commission also identified 54 officials across 10 states for investigation over alleged involvement in registration irregularities.
However, INEC has acknowledged that cleaning up the latest registration records would not automatically resolve all the problems inherited from previous registration exercises.
Okoye’s remarks have renewed discussions about the credibility of Nigeria’s electoral register and the need for stronger measures to guarantee transparent and credible elections in 2027.
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