The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has traced the appearance of suspected artificial intelligence-generated photographs and other irregularities in its preliminary Register of Voters to alleged misconduct by some registration officers who had access to its registration system.
The commission’s Director of Information and Communication Technology, Dr Lawrence Bayode, disclosed this on Friday during an interview on Arise Television, explaining that some registration officers across the country allegedly introduced questionable records into the database using their official login credentials.
Bayode said INEC uncovered the irregularities through its Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS), which was deployed to scrutinise registration records and identify suspicious entries.
He explained that while some of the questionable photographs were generated using artificial intelligence, others resulted from poor registration procedures.
‘Some of these pictures are AI-generated. Some of them not AI-generated, but very bad registration. And this thing got into the register by the registration officers because they have access to register people,’ he said.
According to him, the commission had identified the affected records and established how some of the irregularities occurred, although the reasons behind the actions of the officers involved remained unclear.
The ICT director said the irregularities were not attributable to all registration officers but involved some personnel across different states.
The disclosure follows public outrage over suspicious photographs and other discrepancies discovered after INEC uploaded its preliminary voters’ register to its website on October 26.
Screenshots circulated on social media reportedly showed photographs suspected to have been generated by AI attached to voter records in parts of Edo State. Other complaints involved alleged duplicate registrations and missing details of some registered voters.
Bayode said the commission had commenced efforts to clean up the register even before releasing the preliminary version, noting that the exercise was being conducted within the statutory 90-day period.
INEC had earlier clarified that the online register was the same preliminary version physically displayed at Registration Areas nationwide between October 9 and 15 for the Display, Claims and Objections exercise.
In a statement issued on October 27, the commission acknowledged identifying questionable records during the exercise and said it had commenced a review and corrective measures.
It stressed that the published register was not the final certified version and did not reflect the completion of its ongoing verification and data-cleanup processes.