Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has threatened legal action against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) unless it identifies and prosecutes officials allegedly involved in irregularities involving AI-generated photographs in the preliminary voter register.
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Atiku, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, also demanded the disclosure of companies contracted to produce sensitive election materials ahead of the 2027 general elections.
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Atiku’s demands
In a statement issued on Friday through his campaign spokesperson, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku described the development as a serious breach of public trust and questioned INEC’s ability to safeguard the electoral process.
“INEC must not quietly ‘clean up’ the register and bury the evidence. The allegation that more than 20 million AI-generated images may be involved demands an independent forensic audit,” he said.
He called for an independent examination of voter records, image files, access logs, and audit trails to determine how the irregularities occurred. Atiku also criticised INEC Chairman Prof. Joash Amupitan for not disclosing the identities of officials implicated.
The controversy followed the discovery of suspicious photographs and duplicate entries in the preliminary voter register uploaded on October 26, 2026.
INEC’s Director of Information and Communication Technology, Dr Lawrence Bayode, said the commission’s Automated Biometric Identification System helped identify questionable records and traced some irregularities to registration officers.
However, INEC maintained that the document was preliminary and that corrections were ongoing ahead of the final register’s certification, scheduled for December 15, 2026.
Atiku warned that the ADC would approach the courts if INEC failed to disclose the requested information. He said accountability was necessary to protect public confidence in the 2027 elections.
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