Nigeria's electoral body said Tuesday it had removed more than 1.6 million voter records from its register after discovering "irregularities" just over two months before general elections, identifying 54 staff as "complicit".

The vast majority of records were expunged for being invalid registrations, INEC said, while a few hundred belonged to people who were verified to have died.

INEC said in October that it would clean up the register following allegations that some names and photographs on the list were AI-generated.

It said at the time that "a number of questionable registration records were identified and flagged for further examination".

On Tuesday, INEC said it had "examined suspected multiple registrations, unusual registration patterns, substituted photographs and irregularities in registration transactions" but did not specify if or how AI might have been used in the purged cases.

Disciplinary action

Voter turnout was just 27 percent in the 2023 elections.

Fifty-four officials in 10 states have been identified as "complicit" in the irregularities and face disciplinary action and possible prosecution, INEC chairman Joash Amupitan said in the statement.

"The commission found instances in which certain registration personnel deliberately circumvented established registration procedures and misused provisions intended for exceptional registration circumstances, including for persons with disabilities," he said.

More than 103 million Nigerians are eligible to vote on January 16 for president and federal lawmakers, followed by February polls for state governors and assembly members.