By Peter Omopo
28th August 2025 | Abuja
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has demanded a forensic audit of the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) first-week voter registration figures ahead of the 2027 elections, citing what it described as “statistically implausible” data.
In a statement on Thursday, ADC National Publicity Secretary Bolaji Abdullahi expressed concern that discrepancies in the initial Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) figures could undermine public confidence in Nigeria’s electoral process.
“Osun State alone reportedly recorded 393,269 pre-registrations in just one week,” Abdullahi said. “To put this in context, Osun added only 275,815 new voters between 2019 and 2023—a period of four years. This is highly unusual and statistically implausible.”
The ADC highlighted broader regional anomalies, noting that the South West accounted for 848,359 pre-registrations, representing 67% of the national total, while the South East recorded only 1,998 registrations. According to the party, Osun, Lagos, and Ogun states alone accounted for over 54% of pre-registrations, while five states in the South East together contributed just 0.2% of the total.
The party warned that these figures could indicate either a technical fault in INEC’s digital registration system or, more concerningly, a deliberate manipulation of data.
“The voter register is the foundation of the entire electoral process. If compromised, it brings the integrity of the elections into question,” Abdullahi said.
The ADC is urging INEC to conduct a full forensic audit of the first-week pre-registration data, including:
- State-by-state breakdowns of physical and online registrations
- Server logs, bandwidth distribution, and regional access reports
The party also called on opposition political parties, election monitoring groups, and international bodies—including the United Nations, African Union, and ECOWAS—to scrutinize the registration data and demand accountability.
INEC officially launched the nationwide Continuous Voter Registration exercise on August 18, 2025, with online registration running until December 10, 2025, and physical registration at designated centres beginning August 25, 2025.
The ADC emphasized that addressing these anomalies promptly is crucial to ensuring the credibility of the 2027 elections.
