Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has threatened to take the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to court unless it identifies officials allegedly responsible for introducing artificial intelligence-generated photographs and other irregularities into the preliminary voters’ register ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Atiku, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), also demanded that the commission disclose the companies contracted to produce sensitive election materials and explain the security arrangements guiding their operations.
He insisted that officials found to have manipulated the voter registration database must face prosecution.
The demands followed INEC’s admission that some registration officers allegedly abused their access credentials to introduce irregularities into the database.
Atiku said the development raised questions about the security of the electoral register and the commission’s ability to protect the integrity of the electoral process.
He made his position known in a statement issued in Abuja on Friday by Phrank Shaibu, Director of Strategic Communication of the ADC Presidential Campaign Council. The former vice-president described the reported breach as a failure of the commission’s internal safeguards and called on its leadership to account for the incident.
Atiku particularly questioned the explanation given by INEC’s Director of Information and Communication Technology, Dr Lawrence Bayode, who said the commission had established how some irregularities were introduced but could not determine the reasons behind the actions of the officers involved.
The ADC presidential candidate argued that knowing how the database was compromised was not enough without identifying those responsible and explaining why they had not been suspended or prosecuted.
He also challenged INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, to make the commission’s findings public.
Beyond demanding the identities of the officials, Atiku called for an independent forensic examination of the preliminary voters’ register. He warned against removing questionable entries without preserving the records and digital evidence needed to establish how they entered the database.
He urged INEC to retain all voter records, image files, access logs and audit trails for examination by independent experts, political parties, civil society organisations and credible international observers.
Atiku also cited an allegation that more than 20 million AI-generated images could be involved, arguing that the claim required an independent investigation rather than an internal review alone.
The former vice-president extended his demand for transparency to the procurement of sensitive election materials. He accused INEC of failing to address opposition parties’ concerns about the companies handling the production of such materials.
He maintained that political parties should be informed about the identities of the contractors, the nature of their assignments and the security measures governing the production and handling of election materials. He said the ADC would seek judicial intervention if the commission refused to provide the information.
Speaking on Arise Television on Friday, Bayode said INEC’s Automated Biometric Identification System helped detect questionable records and trace some irregularities to registration officers with database access. He explained that while some photographs were AI-generated, others resulted from poor registration procedures.
INEC has maintained that the online register is preliminary and was previously displayed physically across registration areas between October 9 and 15 for claims and objections. The commission is reviewing disputed entries ahead of the final register’s scheduled certification on December 15, 2026.
