INEC BLAMES REGISTRATION OFFICERS FOR AI-GENERATED PHOTOS IN VOTERS’ REGISTER

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has finally broken its silence on the AI-generated images scandal rocking the preliminary voters’ register, blaming its own field registration officers for introducing the irregularities.

INEC’s Director of ICT, Dr Lawrence Bayode, disclosed on Arise Television on Friday that some officers exploited their login credentials to manipulate the database, ValidViewNetwork reports.

THE EXPLANATION

“We have registration officers on the field. And these registration officers, they have login details to log into the system. So what we have found is that some of these registration officers, not all of them now, some of them across the states nationwide, they’ve done different things to bring these irregularities onto the register,” Bayode said.

He explained that while some photographs were indeed AI-generated, others resulted from “very bad registration” practices. The anomalies were detected through the commission’s Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS).

THE UNANSWERED WHY

Bayode admitted that while INEC knows “what they did” and “how they did it,” the commission does not know “why” the officers acted as they did.

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This raises serious questions. If the officers were not motivated by political or financial gain, what was their motivation? And if they were, who was behind them?

WHY IT MATTERS

The admission by INEC is a significant development. It confirms that the register was compromised, and it identifies the culprits—the commission’s own officers.

But it also raises new questions. How many officers were involved? What did they hope to achieve? And what is being done to prevent it from happening again?

The public outrage that greeted the discovery of the AI images forced INEC to speak.

Now, the commission must act. The officers must be identified, investigated, and prosecuted. The register must be cleaned up. And Nigerians must be assured that their votes will count in 2027.

The silence has been broken. The investigation must begin. ValidViewNetwork reports.