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A former National Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Festus Okoye, has questioned the credibility of Nigeria’s voters’ register ahead of the 2027 general election, describing it as opaque and not genuine.
Okoye, however, said the country would have to proceed with the existing register for the 2027 polls, insisting that there was insufficient time to introduce a replacement before the election.
He called on INEC to conduct a fresh biometric registration exercise immediately after the general election to address concerns about the integrity of the electoral process.
The former commissioner made the remarks during an interview on Channels Television while responding to a question on what could give Nigerians confidence in the credibility of the voters’ register ahead of the election.
“My position is that immediately after the conduct of the 2027 general election, Nigeria must have a new biometric voters’ register,” he said.
Explaining his position, Okoye said the existing register lacked the transparency required to establish its credibility.
“I think that our voters’ register as presently constituted is opaque and cannot be said to be a clean voters’ register. It cannot be said to be a genuine voters’ register that we can go into an election with,” he said.
Despite his reservations, he maintained that there was little that could be done to replace the register before the forthcoming election.
“But the truth of the matter is that there is nothing we can do now. We have to go into the election with this current voters’ register and immediately after the election, we should have a new biometric voters’ register,” Okoye added.
His remarks come amid discussions about electoral reforms and measures to strengthen public confidence in INEC’s preparations for the 2027 general election.
