The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has blamed some of its registration officers for introducing artificial intelligence-generated photographs and other irregularities into the preliminary register of voters.
INEC’s Director of Information and Communication Technology, Dr Lawrence Bayode, in a televised interview said some registration officers used their login details to introduce questionable records into the commission’s database.
Bayode said the irregularities were discovered through the commission’s Automated Biometric Identification System, which was deployed to examine the registration records.
The commission had faced backlash on social media after citizens flagged duplicate entries, suspected AI-generated photographs, and names of deceased persons on its register.
Screenshots shared by social media users showed entries from a polling unit in Etsako West LGA of Edo state with photographs suspected to have been generated by AI, raising concerns about discrepancies in the data.
Bayode said the commission had found out how some of the irregularities occurred but could not explain why the officers introduced them.
He explained that the commission had been cleaning up the register even before publishing the preliminary version, noting that it was under pressure to complete the exercise within the statutory 90-day period.
However, he said that the commission is in the process of cleaning the register noting that before December 15 when the final register will be released the discrepancies would have been corrected.
