Nigeria’s electoral commission is examining 268 entries in the preliminary voter register after its biometric identification system marked them for further checks. Lawrence Bayode, INEC’s director of information and communication technology, gave the figure on Channels Television on 1 November. It covers suspected artificial photographs as well as other irregularities. It does not establish that 268 people registered fraudulently.
Bayode drew a distinction that matters to anyone whose phone adjusts pictures automatically. A camera can improve an image of the person standing in front of it. That is different from software inventing a face. He said genuine voters would not be excluded simply because a phone had enhanced their photograph. INEC intends to remove wholly generated images.
The list shown online on 26 October was a preliminary one. INEC said it corresponded to the version displayed locally from 9 to 15 October and did not incorporate all the checks already under way. An image seen online can therefore show what was displayed for inspection without establishing what will appear in the certified register.
The figure also describes a stage in a process. The system identified entries that merited attention. Officials still have to examine the records and decide what action each requires. Bayode said work on affected entries had begun. He did not give a final count of records removed in the interview.
What it means for you: if a phone has brightened your genuine photograph, the commission says that change alone is no reason for exclusion. Equally, seeing an entry on the preliminary list is not confirmation that it has passed every check. The distinction concerns the origin of the image and the status of the record.
INEC has set 15 December 2026 for certification after verification and decisions on disputed entries. That date is a useful point of reference for comparing the preliminary list with the eventual result. It is not a deadline announced in this interview for voters to submit replacement photographs.