'It's impossible' - Ex-INEC chief demands explanation from Amupitan over 1.5m invalid voter records

Former Director of Voter and Publicity Education at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, has questioned how 1.5 million questionable voter records were allowed into the commission's register.

Speaking during an interview on Arise Television, Osaze-Uzzi stated that such anomalies should not occur given the technological safeguards implemented by INEC to block multiple registrations and irregularities. He emphasized that the legal criteria for voter eligibility are clear and should streamline the process.

"The work ordinarily ought to be easier for the commission. The law is quite clear about who is entitled to be on the register: you're a Nigerian citizen, you're 18 years and above, and then you go there, and you register. It's as simple as that," Osaze-Uzzi said.

Highlighting the mandatory physical presence and biometric capture required for registration, he expressed confusion over how millions of questionable entries bypassed security measures.

"You must turn up physically for the registration. So it should be a straightforward, simple process. But Nigeria, being what it is, the simpler it is, the more complex things, issues, and challenges arise from those things. I don't know how up to 1.5 million entries can be made in the register. You've heard of AI. You've heard of multiple registrants. That ought not to be with things that have been put in place by the commission," he added.

Osaze-Uzzi noted that the commission has yet to clarify the exact timeframe covered by the database review or specify how the flawed entries were originally detected. He stressed that while tools like the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) and artificial intelligence can assist in filtering duplicates, INEC must provide a transparent account of how the records entered the database in the first place.