The allegations by the African Democratic Congress (ADC) that the number of pre-registrants recorded in Osun State during the first week of the ongoing continuous voter registration (CVR) exercise was potentially inflated, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said.
The commission described the claims as misleading, saying it was not supported by historical records.
The Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, in a statement said the figures released by the commission, which showed Osun State with 393,269 pre-registrations between August 18 and 24, 2025, were consistent with patterns recorded in previous CVRs.
Arise News reports that the ADC had, in a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, argued that the numbers emerging from Osun State alone defied both demographic realities and electoral trends.
The ADC had warned that such figures, if unchecked, could erode public trust in the electoral process ahead of future elections.
But Oyekanmi insisted that nothing could be further from the truth, stressing that similar scenarios had played out during the 2021/2022 CVR exercise when Osun State consistently led the charts in online pre-registration.
The commission recalls thus: “It will be recalled that the Commission rolled out the online pre-registration of voters on August 18, 2025, followed by in-person registration on August 25, 2025.
‘In its usual tradition, the Commission released the data of online pre-registrations from August 18-24, totalling 1,379,342. In the figures released, Osun State led with 393,269, followed by Lagos State with 222,205, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) with 107,682.
“With regard to Osun State, the pattern is similar to what occurred in June 2021 when the Commission launched online pre-registration for the first time. Within the first 24 hours of launching the portal on June 28, 2021, 59,331 accounts were created.
“By the second week on July 12, 2021, a total of 456,909 accounts were active, with Osun State topping the list with 154,893 pre-registrations. By the eighth week in August 2021, Osun still led with 365,412 pre-registrations, and by April 2022, the state recorded 708,782.”
According to him, if the ADC had consulted past data already in the public domain, it would have seen that Osun’s high pre-registration figures were neither new nor unusual.
He also explained that all persons who pre-registered online must still complete their biometrics at designated centres to become valid registrants.
The commission, he said, had consistently displayed preliminary registers for public scrutiny, while using its Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) to weed out double registrations.
Oyekanmi reminded the public that the 2019 General Election saw an addition of over 14 million new voters after due diligence, while the 2023 polls had 9.4 million fresh voters, raising the total to 93,469,008.
He added: “While it is not in the Commission’s place to speculate why any state has more registrants than others, our duty is to ensure only real persons who meet constitutional and legal requirements are added to the voters’ register. We urge political actors to avoid unfounded conjectures and instead rely on authentic, verifiable data from our official records.”
Friday Olokor
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