The alarm raised by opposition parties over voter registration figures from the South-West in the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration exercise has gotten the attention of the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Recall that both the African Democratic Congress and the Labour Party questioned the credibility of the data, particularly the numbers from Osun State, which recorded nearly 400,000 pre-registrations in one week.
In a statement, the ADC’s Acting National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, said the figures “contradict both historical trends and demographic realities.” He noted, “Osun State alone recorded 393,269 pre-registrations in just one week. To put this in context, Osun added only 275,815 new voters between 2019 and 2023, a period of four years. In other words, Osun has now supposedly registered more people in seven days than it managed to do in an entire electoral cycle of four years.”
The Labour Party also rejected the figures, with its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Tony Akeni, warning Nigerians to be watchful. “We are tired of INEC’s shenanigans. Even their claims of having registered prison inmates is an open fraud. They are just giving us advance notice that the forthcoming elections would be as fraudulent or more fraudulent than the past,” he told newsmen.
But the All Progressives Grand Alliance dismissed the concerns, saying the ADC was being “alarmist.” Its spokesperson, Ejimofor Opara, said, “INEC credibility is not in doubt. We believe they will do the right thing by carrying everyone along and capturing them in the process.”
The Osun chapters of the Peoples Democratic Party and the All Progressives Congress reacted cautiously, with the PDP describing the figures as “alarming” but suggesting it could reflect voters’ readiness, while the APC maintained that only INEC could explain the numbers.
INEC, however, defended its data. In a statement by Rotimi Oyekanmi, Chief Press Secretary to the Chairman, the commission insisted the figures were consistent with past trends. “Nothing can be further from the truth,” it said of the opposition’s claims.
Citing the 2021 registration exercise, Oyekanmi explained that Osun State also led in online registrations at the time, with figures peaking at over 700,000. He stressed that all pre-registrants must still complete their biometrics in person, a process designed to prevent double registration.
“The commission will continue to make information available to the public on the progress of the current online and in-person CVR,” Oyekanmi said, urging citizens to rely on verified data instead of speculation.
