Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has debunked allegations by a political party suggesting that the number of online pre-registrants recorded in Osun State during the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise is inconsistent with demographic realities.
In a statement issued on Thursday, by Rotimi Oyekanmi, Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, the Commission described the claims as baseless and urged political actors to avoid speculation when verifiable data is readily available in the public domain.
The Commission recalled that it rolled out the online pre-registration of voters on August 18, 2025, followed by the commencement of in-person registration on August 25 at its 811 State and Local Government offices across the country. Within the first week of the exercise, between August 18 and 24, a total of 1,379,342 Nigerians pre-registered online. Osun State led the figures with 393,269 registrants, followed by Lagos State with 222,205, and the Federal Capital Territory with 107,682.
INEC explained that Osun’s performance is not unusual, citing historical trends during the last CVR exercise. In June 2021, when the online pre-registration portal was first launched, Osun State topped the table consistently. Within the first 24 hours of the exercise on June 28, 2021, 59,331 accounts were created, and by the second week, 456,909 accounts were active, with Osun accounting for 154,893. By April 2022, when the exercise was concluded, Osun had amassed 708,782 pre-registrations, the highest in the country.
The election umpire noted that during the 2021/2022 CVR exercise, it consistently released weekly updates and subjected the preliminary voter register to public scrutiny at the end of each quarter.
The Commission further applied its Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) to detect and eliminate cases of double registration.
“That process resulted in the addition of over 9.4 million new voters to the register, bringing the total to 93,469,008 for the 2023 general election”.
The electoral umpire stressed that its responsibility is not to speculate on why one state records more registrants than another, but to ensure that every eligible Nigerian who meets constitutional and legal requirements is properly captured in the register.
“The Commission will continue to make information available to the public on the progress of the current online and in-person CVR. We appeal to all well-meaning citizens to be circumspect in going public with information based on sheer conjecture when they can rely on authentic and verifiable data available from our official repositories,” .
INEC assured Nigerians that due diligence will be applied in the ongoing CVR process, just as in previous exercises, to guarantee a credible and inclusive voter register ahead of future elections.
