INEC removes AI photos from voters register, flags staff in 10 states

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has removed artificial intelligence-generated photographs uploaded to the national voters’ register and flagged officials involved in the practice across 10 states.

INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, Mohammed Haruna, disclosed the development on Wednesday during a webinar organised by the PUNCH Media Foundation. The event was themed ‘AI, Misinformation and Nigeria’s 2027 Elections: Safeguarding the Truth, Protecting the Vote’.

Haruna stated that while the commission faces limitations in stopping members of the public from enhancing their photographs prior to uploading, actions by electoral staff remain strictly within institutional control.

“We have already seen one of the challenges, which is that a lot of AI-generated photographs were posted onto the voters’ register, which, as we have said, we have had to take down. But the ones involving our own staff, where it is our own staff that did so, that one is within our control. We are in the process of addressing it. They have been flagged”, Haruna.

The National Commissioner confirmed that the commission has identified the affected personnel across 10 states, adding that they will face administrative sanction.

Haruna explained that the commission has drafted an artificial intelligence policy that is currently being finalized. He observed that artificial intelligence represents an evolving area where even advanced democracies are working to establish regulatory structures.

“We have at least some ideas of what we want to do and how we want to use that. We have that policy. Very soon, we will concretise it, and we will be able to share it with the media,” Haruna stated.