Ex-NIPOST chief proposes new test for voters’ register

Former Postmaster-General of the Federation and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Postal Service, Bisi Adegbuyi

Nigeria’s voters’ register should be subjected to an independent geographic audit to establish whether the locations attached to voter records are accurate and verifiable, former Postmaster-General of the Federation, Bisi Adegbuyi, has said.

According to a statement obtained by The PUNCH on Thursday, Adegbuyi is proposing a review of the geographic data underpinning voter registration, arguing that verifying a voter’s identity alone may not expose inconsistencies in the location information used to organise elections.

The proposal adds another dimension to scrutiny of the register, amid concerns over questionable voter photographs and possible procedural lapses in the handling of voter information.

Adegbuyi wants electoral authorities to examine whether registration records can be traced to consistent, verifiable geographic references.

He urged the relevant authorities to subject a technical framework he proposed in February to independent assessment, saying geographic verification could complement Nigeria’s existing biometric and voter-identification systems.

The framework, proposed on February 27, 2026, seeks to modernise legacy voter addresses through machine-assisted interpretation, geographic resolution and digital location referencing.

According to Adegbuyi, these tools could help electoral administrators identify inconsistent location data, unusual concentrations of registrations in particular areas and records whose polling-unit assignments require further scrutiny.

He said the proposal would not require the replacement of Permanent Voter Cards or the abandonment of existing biometric verification.

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Rather, it would add a geographic layer to the checks already used to establish voter identity.

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

The former chief executive officer of the Nigerian Postal Service argued that the integrity of the register should be assessed against more than the existence of a voter’s identity record.

“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.

Geographic verification, however, would not by itself establish whether a registration was fraudulent or resolve every question about voter identity.

Adegbuyi acknowledged that limitation, presenting the proposed system as a complementary tool for identifying records that may warrant further investigation.

He called for any assessment or implementation of the framework to comply with electoral laws and data-protection requirements and respect the statutory authority of the Independent National Electoral Commission.

Adegbuyi said the aim was to improve the reliability and auditability of voter records without disrupting existing registration and verification arrangements.