Our Reporter, Abuja
Media Rights Agenda (MRA) has strongly condemned the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for demanding an “outrageous” fee of over ₦1.5 billion as a precondition for releasing copies of the National Register of Voters and the list of polling units in Nigeria.
The group described the demand as “a blatant attempt to weaponize cost as a tool for denying access to vital public information,” in violation of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act.
In a statement issued in Lagos, MRA’s Executive Director, Mr. Edetaen Ojo, said the register and polling unit lists are among the most essential public records required by civil society organizations, political parties, election observers, and the media to effectively monitor Nigeria’s electoral process.
“By placing such a colossal financial barrier in the way of a requester, INEC is deliberately hindering the public’s right and ability to scrutinize its operations, thereby compromising transparency and avoiding accountability,” Ojo said.
MRA’s position follows a letter from INEC, dated October 13, 2025, and signed by its Secretary, Ms. Rose Oriaran-Anthony, in response to an earlier request filed on October 8, 2025, by the law firm of V-C Ottaokpukpu & Associates. The Commission had demanded ₦1,505,901,750.00 as the cost of producing the requested documents.
Ojo described the fee as “excessive, prohibitive, and a clear violation of the spirit and letter of the FOI Act.”
He cited Section 8(1) of the Act, which stipulates that charges for information requests must be limited to standard fees for duplication and transcription.
“The staggering amount of over ₦1.5 billion cannot be a standard charge for duplication and is a deliberate attempt to make public data inaccessible. This is an affront to transparency and democratic accountability,” he said.
The MRA boss also recalled that former Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr. Mohammed Adoke (SAN), had issued implementation guidelines limiting duplication charges to ₦10 per page. He argued that even if all 93.4 million registered voters and 176,846 polling units were printed, the pages could not amount to ₦1.5 billion at the legally approved rate.
Ojo further cited the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights’ 2017 Guidelines on Access to Information and Elections in Africa, which direct election management bodies to proactively disclose voter rolls and polling information.
He noted that the requested data is likely already digitized and centrally stored, meaning that reproducing it would incur negligible costs.
“INEC’s response sends a strong signal that it is prioritizing bureaucracy and profit over its constitutional and statutory obligations to the Nigerian people, or that it is deliberately impeding public scrutiny of its operations,” Ojo warned.
He emphasized that the primary objective of the FOI Act is to ensure free access to public records and warned that allowing INEC’s action to stand could set a “dangerous precedent” that encourages other agencies to impose unlawful fees.
MRA therefore called on INEC to immediately withdraw the demand and release the requested information either free of charge, in line with the African Commission’s guidelines, or at a cost consistent with the FOI Act and the Attorney-General’s directives.
