Political parties, civil society groups and electoral stakeholders have raised the alarm over the Independent National Electoral Commission’s planned nationwide voter revalidation exercise, warning it risks disenfranchising millions of Nigerians ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The African Democratic Congress, the Peoples Democratic Party and the Obidient Movement, alongside civil society organisations, on Sunday questioned the feasibility, timing and intent of the exercise, which INEC had scheduled to run from April 13 to May 29, 2026.
The commission had described the exercise as an effort to remove deceased persons, non-Nigerians, underage registrants and multiple entries from the national voter register, stressing it targeted only voters who registered between 2011 and 2024 and was not a fresh registration drive.
However, in a letter dated April 4 and signed by INEC Secretary Rose Oriaran-Anthony, the commission directed all Resident Electoral Commissioners to suspend preparations for the exercise, step down all publicity and await further directives. The commission also converted a scheduled physical meeting with RECs on April 9 to a virtual session via Zoom.
**Parties cry foul**
ADC National Publicity Secretary Bolaji Abdullahi questioned how INEC expected rural Nigerians — many without National Identification Numbers or internet access — to complete a technically demanding revalidation process nine months before an election.
“How do you ask villagers and those in rural areas to validate online? These are people who may not even have money to eat,” he said, adding that the exercise amounted to an attempt to suppress participation.
Abdullahi’s position was echoed by a faction of the ADC led by Nafiu Gombe. Bala Sani, Chief of Staff to Gombe, said the NIN requirement alone would exclude large swaths of the rural population.
“When you go to an average village in this country, how many of the people even have this NIN? Honestly speaking, many people will be disenfranchised in the 2027 election,” Sani told The PUNCH.
PDP National Publicity Secretary Ini Ememobong went further, alleging the exercise was part of a deliberate strategy by INEC and the All Progressives Congress to tilt the 2027 polls in favour of the ruling party.
“The timing of this exercise is very wrong. This is just an attempt in the INEC/APC political playbook to ensure a coronation — an uncontested presidential election,” he said, also raising concern that INEC was simultaneously threatening to audit political parties’ physical facilities — a move he described as a veiled attempt to deregister opposition parties.
Obidient Movement National Coordinator Yunusa Tanko warned the exercise would further collapse already thin public trust in the electoral body, noting that only about 25 million of the registered 98 million voters turned out in the last general election.
“A revalidation will further reduce the number. People are already seeing INEC as unfair and don’t have trust in them,” Tanko said, alleging the exercise was designed to “annihilate and reduce” opposition votes.
Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, Auwal Rafsanjani, said the exercise was demoralising voters rather than building confidence in the system, arguing that INEC lacked both the manpower and technological capacity to execute it successfully within the proposed timeframe.
Accountability Lab Nigeria Country Director Friday Odeh acknowledged the necessity of cleaning the voter register but warned that revalidation alone would not close the yawning trust gap between INEC and the electorate. “It doesn’t build the trust gap that is affecting voters in the long term,” he said, urging the commission to target at least 50 per cent voter turnout in 2027 as a credibility benchmark.
Debo Adeniran, Executive Director of the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, rejected the exercise outright, arguing that a Permanent Voter Card should not be subjected to periodic revalidation. “When they say something is permanent, it is not supposed to be subjected to periodic re-evaluation,” he said.
A former INEC Director of Voter Education, Oluwole Uzzi, affirmed that the commission was constitutionally and legally empowered to conduct voter revalidation, but conceded that the timing was politically contentious.
“Constitutionally and legally, INEC has the right to do that. But whether it’s an opportune time is a totally different issue,” he said. “Just a few months to the election, it’s not an opportune time, and people have a valid argument in that regard.”
Uzzi also questioned why the revalidation was being introduced while the Continuous Voter Registration exercise was still ongoing, calling for broader consultations with political stakeholders to restore transparency.
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