The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it has removed 1,608,660 invalid voter registrations.

Speaking at a press briefing in Abuja on Monday, Joash Amupitan, INEC chairman, said the invalid registrations were identified through a review conducted using the automated biometric identification system (ABIS) for the 2025 and 2026 continuous voter registration (CVR) exercise.

In October, the commission faced backlash after Nigerians flagged duplicate entries, artificial intelligence-generated photos and names of deceased persons on the voter register.

Amupitan said the commission also removed 873 records belonging to verified deceased persons, bringing the total number of records deleted from the register to 1,609,553.

He said the commission had concluded the cleaning exercise following complaints, claims and objections received during the display of the preliminary register at registration wards between October 9 and 15, 2026, and its subsequent online publication.

“The commission harvested 11,088,238 records from the three phases of the 2025/2026 continuous voter registration (CVR) exercise. Of these, ABIS initially flagged 1,545,052 for examination,” Amupitan said.

“A flagged record is not necessarily an invalid registration: automated screening identifies matters requiring review, while authorised adjudication determines the outcome. Consequently, before publication of the preliminary register, 1,277,052 registrations had been confirmed invalid and excluded from the 1,545,052 for examination.

“As a result of objections, claims and complaints received during the display and publication, a further 268,000 cases underwent adjudication. A total of 217,722 were confirmed invalid and removed, while 50,278 were cleared as valid and retained.

“Additional screening subsequently identified 113,886 further invalid registrations, which were also removed. The cumulative total of confirmed invalid registrations removed after the objections, claims and complaints is 331,608, in addition to the 873 separately verified deceased voters’ records. This brings the total clean-up to 1,608,660.

“The commission confirms that the current register-cleaning exercise for the 2025/2026 continuous voter registration (CVR) has been concluded.

“All 1,608,660 confirmed invalid registrations have been removed. In addition, 873 records belonging to verified deceased persons have also been removed as a separate category. The combined total of records removed under these two categories is 1,609,553.”

On the irregularities recorded in the preliminary voter register, Amupitan said the commission had identified 54 officials across 10 states for disciplinary action, including possible prosecution, over irregularities detected in the 2025/2026 CVR exercise.

“To prevent recurrence, the Commission is strengthening its registration controls with enhanced biometric capture, authentication and verification safeguards,” he said.

“Fifty-four persons cutting across 10 states have been identified as complicit, and necessary disciplinary action will be taken against them, including possible prosecution.”

He said some registration personnel deliberately circumvented established procedures and abused provisions designed for exceptional registration circumstances, including those involving persons with disabilities

“The affected records have been identified and subjected to the appropriate review and remediation processes, while the associated personnel have been identified for further administrative investigation,” he said.

Speaking on the complaints about omitted names, the chairman said INEC discovered that most of the affected voters had registered between 2011 and 2023 but subsequently registered again instead of transferring their voter registration to their new locations.

Amupitan said ABIS invalidated the subsequent registrations, while the voters’ names remained in their previous registration locations.

The INEC chairman advised affected voters to check their former registration locations.

France has accused Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of being behind cyber-attacks that raised the temperatures of supermarket fridges and freezers across the country last month.

Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said the attack was “unprecedented in both its scale and its level of aggression”, adding those who were responsible would be hit with sanctions.

Iran has yet to respond officially, but some Iranian media outlets have dismissed the allegations as baseless.

The French hacking, which led to the destruction of tons of frozen and chilled food in France was followed by a similar attack against supermarkets across several other European countries. It is not known if the instances are linked.

Barrot said the attack on France’s supermarkets “marks the first large-scale cyber-attack aimed at sabotage on our national territory, and it constitutes a major attack on the nation’s interests and the security of the French people”.

He said the government had summoned the Iranian ambassador to Paris to “lodge a very strong protest against this extremely grave act”.

France will take “any other necessary and proportionate measures” to respond to the incident and “deter anyone who might seek to repeat it”, Barrot added.

The Paris prosecutor said an investigation had been opened into the head of an offensive cyber unit associated with the IRGC as well as his two deputies.

Laure Beccuau named the unit as Shahid Kaveh, which she said had an affiliation with the electronic and cyber centre of the IRGC.

Shahid Kaveh is the name given to a cluster of hackers thought to be directly employed by the Iranian regime.

In recent weeks, a number of commentators and politicians in Iran have argued that the country should extend any retaliation beyond the Middle East if the US and Israel resume the war they started earlier this year.

If the IRGC carried out the cyber-attacks, it remains unclear whether they were part of Iran’s deterrence strategy.

On 11 October, hackers gained control of the software that regulates the temperatures of the refrigeration units used in many of France’s supermarkets.

More than 100 of Coopérative U’s supermarkets were hit, as well as 180 stores from Intermarché and its Netto brand. In some stores, temperatures of the fridges reportedly rose to 50C (120F) overnight.

Other major food retailers including Carrefour, Monoprix and E.Leclerc were also hit by the attack, which targeted software provided by Danish engineering firm Danfoss.

The software allows retailers to manage their cold units remotely.

Earlier this month a second wave of hacks took place, hitting more than 100 stores across Europe.

Supermarkets in Belgium and Luxembourg were affected, while a smaller number of shops were hit in countries including Sweden, Ireland, the Netherlands, Estonia and Finland.

Separately in August a small number of US military bases had fridges mysteriously malfunction, spoiling food. This incident is also being investigated as deliberate cyber-attacks, Reuters news agency has reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.

Since the waves of attacks on freezers, experts have been speculating which hacking groups could be responsible, with Iran being on a list of potential suspects.

In spite of a pair of Russian-aligned hacktivist groups claiming they were responsible on Wednesday, few believed them.

The French government has not said how it reached the conclusion that Iran was responsible, and attribution of cyber-attacks is extremely hard as hackers are able to hide their locations.

At least 39 people have died after a boat carrying migrants sank off the coast of Senegal, reports say.

The interior ministry said one person had been rescued, but the number of people still missing was yet to be established.

The small wooden boat capsized between the capital, Dakar and the northern city of Saint-Louis, as it headed towards Spain’s Canary Islands.

Spanish migrant rights group Walking Borders recorded 635 deaths on the Atlantic route to the Canary Islands between January and May 2026, the highest toll among the routes it monitors.

Saliou Diouf, founder of Senegalese migrant aid group Boza Fii, said all the bodies recovered by Sunday evening were Senegalese. The nationalities of other people on board was yet to be established, as search operations continued.

Four bodies were recovered on Monday morning in an advanced state of decomposition and buried following a collective funeral prayer organised by the fire service.

Rescue teams are searching along a 25km (15-mile)- stretch of coastline, but operations have been complicated by difficult access and strong ocean currents, which are pushing bodies further south.

Authorities say 24 of the 39 victims have been identified and their bodies returned to their families, while 11 others are still awaiting identification.

President Bassirou Diomaye Faye has expressed his condolences to the victims’ families and urged Senegalese nationals not to risk their lives on the dangerous sea crossings.

In a statement posted on X, he pledged to intensify efforts to dismantle the networks organising the journeys.

“We will relentlessly continue the fight against those who organise these crossings and the work that gives our young people reasons to hope here,” he said.

The tragedy comes amid renewed concerns over the dangers facing migrant attempting to reach Europe by sea.

Walking Borders estimates that about 21 people died for every 100 who reached the Canary Islands during the period it monitored.

Senegalese authorities said they had intercepted another boat, on Friday, carrying 142 migrants attempting to reach Spain.

Those on board included 23 women, two babies and two other children. Police said the group comprised nationals of Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea and Nigeria.

Meanwhile, a state of emergency was declared on the Spanish island of El Hierro on Saturday following a surge in migrant arrivals.

More than 3,300 people have reached the island in about 30 boats since the beginning of November, according to local authorities.

This amounts to almost a third of the population on the island, one of the main entry points into Europe for migrants arriving from West Africa.

Fernando Clavijo, president of the Canary Islands regional government, described the situation as “absolutely unsustainable,”