There is nothing “extraordinary” about the numbers, according to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which has rejected claims of anomalies in its online pre-registration data for the ongoing nationwide Continuous Voter Registration (CVR).
The clarification was provided in an Abuja statement by Mr. Rotimi Oyekanmi, the INEC Chairman’s chief press secretary.
This came after the African Democratic Congress (ADC) expressed concern about the figures in a statement.
Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC’s National Publicity Secretary, called the Osun figures “suspicious” and a challenge to “historical patterns and demographic realities.”
According to Abdullahi, Osun’s nearly 400,000 new voter registrations in just seven days surpassed the state’s total for the previous four years put together.
Additionally, he mentioned that a “extraordinary 67 per cent” of all pre-registrations nationwide came from the South West zone.
Oyekanmi responded by calling the assertion “further from the truth.” stating that Osun’s high online registration numbers were not a novel trend.
He recalled that INEC recorded 1,379,342 registrants for the one-week online pre-registration period, with Osun leading with 393,269, Lagos coming in second with 222,205, and the Federal Capital Territory third with 107,682.
Additionally, Oyekanmi presented historical data from the 2021 CVR exercise, which demonstrated that Osun continuously topped the list of online pre-registrations.
He recalled that 59,331 accounts were created in the first 24 hours after the portal’s June 28, 2021, launch.
There were 456,909 active accounts by the second week of July 12, 2021. It’s interesting to note that Osun had the most pre-registrations at the time, with 154,893. 752,011 people pre-registered in the third week, with Osun leading the pack with 232,880.
In total, 2,215,832 people had pre-registered with Osun by the eighth week on August 23, 2021, with 365,412 still in the lead.
On September 13, 2021, the eleventh week of the exercise, 2,953,094 people pre-registered, with Osun continuing to lead with 402,619 registrations.
“A total of 8,271,647 Nigerians had pre-registered by April 18, 2022, with Osun leading all states with 708,782 registrations,” Oyekanmi recalled.
He claimed that the political party could have obtained the facts by conducting a straightforward search of historical public records.
Oyekanmi also emphasized the stringent verification procedures that come after online pre-registration.
He clarified that in order to register in person and have their biometrics taken, all online applicants must go to a specific location.
He added that double registrants are identified and isolated using INEC’s Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS).
Over 14 million Nigerians were added to the National Register of Voters for the 2019 General Election following all the procedures and due diligence, increasing the total number of voters from nearly 70 million to 84,004,084.
Over 14 million Nigerians were added to the National Register of Voters for the 2019 General Election following all the procedures and due diligence, increasing the total number of voters from nearly 70 million to 84,004,084.
“In the same way, more than 9.4 million new voters were added to the register following the 2021–2022 CVR, bringing the total number of voters to 93,469,008 for the general election in 2023,” he said.
Oyekanmi emphasized that INEC’s responsibility was to guarantee that only legitimate individuals, irrespective of their state of origin, who fulfilled the requirements outlined in the 1999 Constitution and the Electoral Act 2022 were registered.
People should be “wary of going public with information based on sheer conjecture, when they could rely on authentic and verifiable data available from INEC official repositories,” he advised.
In his statement, Abdullahi questioned how Osun alone had 393,269 pre-registrations in a single week, despite adding only 275,815 new voters between 2019 and 2023, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
He pointed out that Osun has never seen more than 823,124 votes cast in the governorship election, not even during its peak political mobilization in 2022.
Additionally, he was perplexed by the fact that “of the six geopolitical zones, the South West alone accounted for 848,359 pre-registrations, an astounding 67 per cent of the national total.” In comparison, there were only 1,998 pre-registrations in the whole South East.
He added, “To further illustrate, three states—Osun, Lagos, and Ogun—make up 54.2% of all pre-registrations in Nigeria, while five states combined—Ebonyi, Imo, Enugu, Abia, and Adamawa—barely recorded 4,153, or 0.2%, and the entire North East recorded just 6.1%.”
Abdullahi claimed that the figures indicated a “technical ‘glitch'” or “deliberate manipulation of data,” and he urged INEC to carry out a “full forensic audit” of the data.
He also called on monitoring organizations and opposition parties to work together to hold the commission accountable and transparent.
