MEDIA Rights Agenda (MRA) has condemned the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for demanding over N1.5 billion to provide a copy of Nigeria’s National Register of Voters and list of polling units.
The organisation described the move as an attempt to frustrate a legitimate Freedom of Information (FOI) request and undermine transparency.
In a statement on Thursday, October 16, MRA’s Executive Director, Edetaen Ojo, said the Commission’s action amounted to a “blatant attempt to weaponise cost as a tool for denying access to vital public information.”
According to Ojo, the National Register of Voters and the list of polling units are one of the most essential public records needed by stakeholders to effectively monitor the electoral process.
He noted that by “placing such a colossal financial barrier in the way of a requester, INEC is deliberately hindering the public’s right and ability to scrutinise its operations, thereby compromising transparency and avoiding accountability.”
The organisation said its reaction followed INEC’s response, dated October 13, 2025, to a request filed five days earlier by V-C Ottackpukpu & Associates, a law firm.
In the letter signed by the Secretary to the Commission, Rose Oriaran-Anthony, INEC demanded N1,505,901,750.00 as the cost of producing the requested documents.
Ojo described the charge as excessive, prohibitive, and a clear violation of the spirit and letter of the FOI Act, citing Section 8(1) of the Act, which limits fees to “standard charges for document duplication and transcription.
“The staggering amount of over N1.5 billion cannot be a standard charge for duplication and is a clear and deliberate attempt to make public data inaccessible to the public. This is an affront to transparency and democratic accountability,” he said.
He recalled that former Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr. Mohammed Adoke, a senior advocate, had issued Guidelines for the Implementation of the FOI Act, capping photocopying and printing charges at N10 per page.
Ojo argued that even if Nigeria’s 93,469,008 registered voters and 176,846 polling units were to be duplicated, the number of pages could not justify the N1.5 billion cost at the legally permissible rate.
He further cited the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights’ Guidelines on Access to Information and Elections in Africa adopted in 2017, which require election management bodies to proactively disclose key electoral information, including the voters’ roll.
He warned that INEC’s response sent a worrying signal about its commitment to transparency, saying the Commission appeared to be prioritizing bureaucracy and profit over its constitutional and statutory obligations to the Nigerian people.
Ojo called on INEC to immediately cancel the fee and provide the requested information free of charge or in strict compliance with the FOI Act and the former Attorney-General’s guidelines.
“The primary objective of the FOI Act is to make public records and information freely available. If allowed to stand, this action by INEC sets a dangerous precedent, which will encourage other government agencies to impose exorbitant fees, effectively nullifying the gains of the FOI Act and rolling back this transparency initiative in Nigeria,” he warned.
Mustapha Usman is an investigative journalist with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: musman@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M