Former President Muhammadu Buhari, Senator Ifeanyi Ubah, media mogul Raymond Dokpesi and former Ondo State Governor Rotimi Akeredolu are among deceased Nigerians whose records remain on the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) voter verification portal with the message “Voter Information Found!”

Checks on INEC’s Continuous Voter Registration and Voter Verification Service portal show that the deceased individuals remain listed, with their records displaying names, partial voter identification numbers, states, local government areas, wards and polling units.

Buhari died in London on July 13, 2025, while Ubah died in London in July 2024. Dokpesi died on May 29, 2023, and Akeredolu died on December 27, 2023. Their continued presence on the portal raises serious questions about INEC’s management of Nigeria’s voters’ register ahead of the 2027 general elections.

INEC’s national voters’ register has reportedly surpassed 103 million registered voters, despite persistent concerns over the inclusion of deceased persons. The continued presence of dead Nigerians on the register highlights the commission’s failure to ensure that its database accurately reflects the population of eligible voters.

One of the major challenges is the absence of a comprehensive, real-time national death registration system linked to the electoral database

INEC’s register review process allows objections to entries considered inaccurate, while its collaboration with the National Identity Management Commission is intended to improve identity verification and database cleaning.

However, the continued appearance of deceased persons on the voter verification portal underscores the urgent need for a comprehensive cleanup of the register before the 2027 elections to avoid issues that could undermine the integrity of the election.