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From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja and Desmond Mgboh, Kano
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has called on Nigerians to scrutinise and fish out ineligible persons wrongly included in the voters’ register displayed in its 8,809 registration areas (wards) and 774 local government area offices nationwide.
It also promised to thoroughly investigate confirmed cases of infractions and discipline culpable officials, as it assured of its committed to transparency and accountability in all its activities.
INEC admitted it may not be out of place for some dead, underage persons and even foreigners to still be in the register.
National Commissioner and Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, made the call in a statement in Abuja, yesterday.
“The entire register has been published on the commission’s website for the first time in the nation’s electoral history. The purpose of the display is to enable Nigerians to scrutinise the preliminary register and make claims about misspellings of names, personal details or missing names on the register so that the errors can be corrected.
“In addition, citizens can raise objections about the presence of ineligible persons, for example, those below the age of 18 years, dead persons, foreigners, or those making false claims so that they can be deleted from the register in line with the commission’s established rules.
“As earlier announced, the commission will display the physical copies of the register for claims and objections at two levels. First, at the registration area level from November 12 to 18, 2022, which comes to an end on Friday, and thereafter, at the local government level from November 19 to 25, 2022.
“The display will be followed by hearing of claims and objections by citizens for disposal action. In addition to the physical display at the registration areas and local governments, the register is also displayed on the commission’s website so that citizens can simultaneously make both claims and objections online throughout the duration of the exercise.
“This is the first time that the commission would be doing so and further underscores our commitment to applying technology to improve the electoral process. So far, the commission has been harvesting the online claims and objections.
“We will do the same for the manual process. At the end of the exercise, all claims and objections made will be addressed. In this way, citizens are contributing to the strengthening of our electoral process.
“It is, therefore, in the foregoing context that recent media reports on the presence of ineligible registrants in the register should be seen. The full display of all registrants speaks to the commission’s commitment to transparency.
“The fact that these likely ineligible registrants are being identified means the objectives of the display for claims and objections are being met.”
Meanwhile, INEC has insisted there is no going back on the deployment of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for voter accreditation and transmission of results to INEC Result Viewing Portal (IreV) on election day.
Kano State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Zango Abdu, disclosed this, yesterday, during a stakeholders’ meeting while speaking on the preparations for the 2023 elections.
He said there would be no incident form that would enable illegible persons to vote using other people’s permanent voter’s card during the elections.
The REC urged all political parties to ensure their campaigns are issue-based and devoid of violence, saying so far, there was no report of political violence during their campaigns.
He also tasked them to study and pay attention to the provisions of the constitution, the Electoral Act, the Police Act and the Public Order Act for proper and peaceful conduct of political party campaigns in the state.
