By Ayodele Oni
As preparations for 2023 general election by the Independent National Election Commission (INEC) climaxes, the commission has disclosed that over 93.5 million Nigerians as eligible to participate in the exercise as voters.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu disclosed this on Wednesday in Abuja, during the third quarterly meeting with political parties.
According to him, 12.29 million Nigerians successfully completed their registrations as new voters in the just concluded Continuous Voter Registration (CVR).
Yakubu added that after a rigorous clean up of the data using the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS), over 2.78 million were identified and removed as ineligible registrants.
He said the commission has identified 23 of its registration officers for severe sanctions having attempted to engage in multiple registration of Nigerians.
Yakubu’s disclosures came as the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) passed a vote of confidence on him for his innovations to reshape the electoral process.
The political parties specifically hailed the deployment of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System BVAS and the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) Portal in the recently concluded elections in the country and for next year’s general election.
The INEC Chairman declared that the decision to deploy BVAS and IReV for the forthcoming polls was cast in stone.
He said only last week, INEC commenced the training of master trainers on election technology to ensure a seamless process, adding that from Thursday, INEC will commence the same training at zonal levels and subsequently train all its ad hoc staff for the 176,846 polling units nationwide.
“On this note, let me once again reassure Nigerians that there is no going back on the deployment of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System BVAS for voter accreditation. There is no going back on the transmission of results to the INEC Result Viewing Portal IReV in real-time on Election Day.
“There will be no Incident Form that enables ineligible persons to vote using other people’s Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) during elections. We are committed to ensuring that the 2023 General Election is transparent and credible, reflecting the will of the Nigerian people.”
The INEC boss further announced that in the next few days, the Commission will print 9,352,228 pages of the register, while the hard copy will be displayed for each of the 8,809 Registration Areas (Wards) and 774 Local Government Areas nationwide.
Also, the entire register will be published on INEC’s website for claims and objections as required by law.
“The display of the physical register will take place at the designated centers from Saturday 12th – Friday 25thNovember 2022. Further details, including the procedure for filing claims and objections, will be released by the Commission next week.
“I would like to appeal to all Nigerians to seize the opportunity of the display to scrutinize the list and help us to clean it up further so that the final register of voters for the 2023 General Election can be compiled and published.
“The Commission is also working hard to ensure the completion of printing of remaining PVCs for new voters as well as those that applied to transfer or the replacement of their lost or damaged cards.
“In the coming days, we will also inform Nigerians of the detailed plan to ensure a seamless collection of the PVCs. We are aware that Nigerians expect an improvement in the procedure for PVC collection.
“Since the end of the CVR in July this year, we have been working to ensure that citizens have a pleasant experience when they come to collect their cards.”
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