The Independent National Electoral Commission has admitted that its officials tampered with the voter register nationwide using AI-generated photos.

Lawrence Bayode, INEC ICT director, stated this in an interview with ARISE TV on Friday. When asked how AI-generated photos found their way into the register, Mr Bayode said some registration officers across the states caused the irregularities.

“I can tell you how AI-generated photos found their way into the register, “Mr Bayode said. “Number one, you know, we have registration officers on the field, and these registration officers have login details to log into the system. So what we have found out 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 into the register.”

The official disclosed that INEC had begun work to clean up the voter register.

“So, we’re cleaning up; we’re seeing a lot of things, different people doing different things, some of them similar. Some of these pictures are AI-generated, some of them not AI-generated, but very bad registration. This thing got into the register by the registration officers, and because they have access to register people,” Mr Bayode said.

AI-generated photos and several cases of duplication found in the voter register have sparked public uproar and questions about the fidelity of the voter register as Nigerians prepare for general elections scheduled for next year.

To allay public concerns over suspected AI-generated pictures in the preliminary voter register published online earlier this month, INEC admitted the irregularities and said it was investigating.