The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced that 7,746 deceased voters were removed from the national voter register across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as of December 2022. Victoria Etta-Messi, INEC’s Director of Voter Education and Publicity, disclosed this during an interview with The Punch, stating that the cleanup is part of the commission’s routine efforts to maintain the integrity of the voter register ahead of elections.
“Seven thousand, seven hundred and forty-six deceased persons across the 36 states and the FCT were removed from the National Register of Voters as of December 2022,” Etta-Messi confirmed.
However, INEC acknowledged ongoing difficulties in identifying and removing deceased registrants due to the lack of comprehensive official death records. These challenges were highlighted in the commission’s 2023 post-general election review conducted in December 2024.
The review also revealed that while 12,298,944 new voters were registered during the last voter registration exercise, 2,780,756 invalid registrations—amounting to 22.6%—were detected and removed using the Automated Biometric Identification System. In addition, INEC expressed concern over the continued decline in voter turnout. The 2023 presidential and National Assembly elections recorded a turnout of only 27.5%, a significant drop from the 35.6% seen in 2019.
Stakeholders have linked the declining turnout to issues such as an inflated voter register and called for more robust cleanup efforts to improve the accuracy of the register. During the post-election review, stakeholders suggested enhanced collaboration between INEC and agencies such as the National Population Commission (NPC) and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to better identify and remove deceased voters.
“Enhanced partnerships with agencies like NPC and NIMC were recommended to improve the accuracy of the voter register,” INEC noted.
Another proposal called for suspending voters who had not participated in the last three election cycles, requiring them to revalidate their registration before being reinstated on the voter register.
