INEC defends ₦1.5bn fee for FOI request, Nigerians call it extortionate

Nigeria’s electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has defended its decision to charge a Lagos-based law firm a hefty ₦1.5 billion for certified copies of the national voter register and polling unit details — a fee many Nigerians have called outrageous.

The controversy began after Nigerians read online INEC’s response to an FOI request by Messrs V.C. Ottaokpukpu & Associates. The law firm had asked for certified true copies of the National Register of Voters for all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, as well as records of polling units across the country.

INEC approved the request but asked the firm to pay ₦1,505,901,750, a sum the Commission claims reflects the cost of producing more than 6 million pages of documents. The revelation sparked widespread outrage on social media, with many Nigerians accusing the electoral body of “extortion.”

“At My Shop in Ibadan, I will pint a page at N25 for black and white and N50 for coloured,” one X (formerly Twitter) user wrote.

Another quipped: “Thanks for the clarification. But 250 Naira per page is extortionate. I think the printing price decreases as the volume increases. 250 is unreasonable.”

“We followed the law”

Responding to the backlash on Thursday, INEC’s Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Victoria Eta-Messi, said the figure was computed strictly in line with Section 8(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2011, which allows public institutions to recover the “actual cost of document duplication and transcription.”

According to her, INEC’s own guidelines — derived from Section 15 of the Electoral Act 2022 — peg the cost of certified true copies at ₦250 per page.

Breaking down the numbers, the Commission explained that the national voter register currently contains 93,469,008 registered voters. At 16 voters per page, that amounts to 6,018,661 pages. Adding the 4,946 pages required for the list of 176,848 polling units, the total comes to 6,023,607 pages.

At ₦250 per page, INEC said, the total bill comes to ₦1,505,901,750 — a calculation the agency insists represents only “the actual cost of document duplication and transcription” and includes no extra charges.

“INEC remains committed to transparency, accountability, and the responsible management of public resources,” Eta-Messi said in the statement.

Despite the clarification, many Nigerians remain skeptical. Critics argue that the commission’s insistence on printing millions of pages — rather than providing a digital copy — defeats the purpose of open data and transparency.

While some commentators agree INEC is within its rights to charge for document reproduction, they question whether the commission has explored cost-effective and technology-driven means of making electoral information accessible — especially when much of the voter data is already managed electronically.