The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has reportedly removed 7,746 deceased voters from the national voter register across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as of December 2022.

INEC’s Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Victoria Etta-Messi, made this known on Thursday, January 16, 2025. She pointed out that the commission is committed to maintaining an accurate voter register.

“Seven thousand, seven hundred and forty-six deceased persons across the 36 states and the FCT were removed from the National Register of Voters as of December 2022,” Etta-Messi said.

It was alleged that despite progress in cleaning the voter register, INEC experienced challenges during its 2023 general election, as revealed during the post-election review in December 2024.

The Commission expressed concern over the difficulty of removing deceased voters due to inadequate official death records.

“Problems with official death records continue to make it very difficult for INEC to remove deceased registrants.”

It was noted that to address the issue, there is a need to enhance collaboration with agencies such as the National Population Commission (NPC) and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).

INEC highlighted the issue of double and multiple registrations, which were flagged by the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS). The system identified and removed 2,780,756 invalid registrations, accounting for 22.6% of new registrants.

The issue of declining voter turnout was also raised. According to INEC, the 2023 presidential and National Assembly elections saw a turnout of just 27.5%, a decrease from 35.6% in 2019.

Stakeholders blamed the decline in voters partly to an inflated voter register and suggested measures such as suspending individuals who have not voted in the last three elections and requiring them to revalidate their registration.