How Did Osun Register More Voters in 7 Days Than 4 Years?, ADC Questions INEC
By: Israel Adeleke
OPEN TELEVISION NAIJA (OTN) News reports as gathered that the African Democratic Congress (ADC) has raised concerns over what it described as “statistically implausible” figures released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from the first week of its Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise.
OTN News further reports that in a statement issued on Thursday by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC questioned how Osun State alone recorded 393,269 new pre-registrations in just seven days, figures, they say surpass the total number of new registrations in the state over the past four years.
According to INEC’s report, Osun’s one-week tally far outstripped the 275,815 voters registered between 2019 and 2023. The ADC described the development as not only unusual but also “statistically implausible.”
“To put this in context, Osun has now supposedly registered more people in seven days than it managed to do in an entire electoral cycle of four years,” the statement read.
The party further noted that even during the 2022 governorship election, Osun’s peak moment of political mobilisation, the state only recorded 823,124 votes.
“Now, by some miracle, nearly 20 percent of all eligible adults in the state have rushed to register,” the ADC observed.
Beyond Osun, the ADC highlighted glaring disparities across geopolitical zones. It said while the Southwest recorded 848,359 pre-registrations, the Southeast managed only 1,998.
The analysis showed that three states, Osun, Lagos, and Ogun, accounted for 54.2 percent of all registrations nationwide. In sharp contrast, five states—Ebonyi, Imo, Enugu, Abia, and Adamawa, together registered just 4,153, representing only 0.2 percent of the national total.
“These fantastic figures,” the ADC warned, “point either to a technical ‘glitch’ in INEC’s system or the more troubling possibility of deliberate manipulation of data.” The party emphasized that the voter register remains the foundation of credible elections, and any compromise threatens the integrity of Nigeria’s democratic process.
To resolve the issue, the ADC demanded a full forensic audit of the first-week pre-registration data, along with a state-by-state breakdown of both online and physical registrations. It also called on INEC to publish server logs, bandwidth allocation, and regional access reports to ensure transparency.
The party urged other opposition groups to join in pressing INEC for accountability, while also appealing to election monitoring bodies, fact-checking organisations, and international partners—including the United Nations, African Union, and ECOWAS—to scrutinize the figures.
“The credibility of our democracy cannot be left to chance,” the statement concluded. “Silence in the face of these anomalies would amount to complicity, and history has shown that unanswered questions about the voter register often threaten national stability.” it added.
What's Your Reaction?
