Adegbuyi Urges Geographic Audit of Nigeria’s Voters’ Register

A former Postmaster-General of the Federation and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST), Bisi Adegbuyi, has called for an independent technical review of Nigeria’s voters’ register.
Adegbuyi said the review should go beyond establishing voter identity to examine the geographic accuracy, consistency and verifiability of registration records.

He made the call in a statement against the backdrop of recent concerns over the integrity of the voters’ register and questions surrounding some voter records.

According to him, credible elections require attention not only to how election results are transmitted, but also to the accuracy of the geographic information attached to voter registrations.
Adegbuyi recalled that he had proposed a technical framework on February 27, 2026, for modernising legacy voter addresses without disrupting existing electoral arrangements.

The proposal recommended the use of machine-assisted interpretation, geographic resolution and deterministic digital location referencing to improve the quality of voter-location data.

He said the approach could help electoral administrators identify inconsistencies, detect unusual geographic concentrations and strengthen the auditability of polling-unit assignments.
Adegbuyi stressed that the proposed framework would not require replacing Permanent Voter Cards or the existing biometric verification system.

Instead, he said, geographic verification would provide an additional layer of assurance alongside existing identity and biometric checks.
His renewed proposal comes amid recent concerns about questionable voter photographs and possible procedural lapses in the management of voter information.

Adegbuyi acknowledged that geographic verification alone could not resolve all questions relating to voter identity or data integrity.
However, he argued that it could complement existing verification mechanisms and provide another means of identifying inconsistencies within the register.

“Nigeria’s electoral infrastructure deserves a verification framework in which identity, geography, provenance and accountability reinforce one another,” he said.

The former NIPOST chief urged relevant authorities to subject his earlier recommendations to an independent technical assessment.
He stressed that any review or implementation should remain subject to electoral laws, data-protection requirements and the statutory authority of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Adegbuyi said the objective should be to strengthen the reliability of the electoral register without undermining existing voter-identification arrangements.
He argued that the credibility of the register depends not only on establishing who is registered, but also on verifying whether the information associated with each registration is accurate and consistent.

“The credibility of a voters’ register depends not only on who is registered, but also on whether the information associated with each registration is accurate, consistent and verifiable,” he said.
Adegbuyi’s proposal places geographic information alongside identity and biometric data as part of a broader framework for strengthening Nigeria’s electoral infrastructure.

The approach would, among other things, provide electoral administrators with additional tools for examining voter-location patterns and identifying records requiring further scrutiny.

He said the current concerns surrounding the register provided an opportunity to revisit technical approaches that could improve verification and accountability before future elections.