The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has expressed serious concerns regarding the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) first-week report on Continuous Voter Pre-Registrations, highlighting what it calls “statistically implausible” data from Osun State and the wider Southwest region.
In a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC pointed out that Osun State reportedly recorded nearly 400,000 new voter registrations within just seven days a number that far exceeds the 275,815 new voters registered in the entire four-year electoral cycle between 2019 and 2023. The party emphasized that such figures conflict dramatically with demographic realities and historical voting patterns in the state.
Moreover, the South West zone accounted for an extraordinary 67 percent of all pre-registrations nationwide, according to INEC’s data. This starkly contrasts with the South East, which recorded just 1,998 registrations in the same period. The ADC noted that three Southwest states Osun, Lagos, and Ogun—constituted over half (54.2%) of all new registrations, while five states in other regions combined barely reached 0.2 percent.
The ADC warned that these anomalies threaten to erode public confidence in Nigeria’s electoral process. The party called on INEC to urgently clarify the situation, suggesting the possibility of either a technical failure in the commission’s digital registration system or deliberate data manipulation.
Highlighting the gravity of the matter, the ADC demanded a full forensic audit of the pre-registration data, including detailed state-by-state breakdowns distinguishing physical from online registrations. The party also urged INEC to release comprehensive server logs, internet bandwidth data, and regional access reports for the registration portal during the controversial period.
The ADC appealed to opposition parties, election monitors, fact-checkers, and legal advocates to join forces in demanding transparency and accountability. Additionally, the party invited international bodies such as the United Nations, African Union, ECOWAS, and democratic allies to closely monitor the situation to safeguard the integrity of the upcoming 2027 elections.
The ADC cautioned that the credibility of Nigeria’s democracy hinges on the integrity of the voter register. Left unaddressed, irregularities in voter data threaten not only electoral fairness but also national stability. The party concluded with a call to action: the time for clarifications and corrective measures is now, and silence would amount to complicity.
