The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has removed at least 38 million Nigerians from voter’s register ahead of 2023 General Elections.
INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, on Wednesday in a press conference, stated that about 45% of registered voters have invalid registrations and would not be included in the register of voters ahead of the 2023 election.
He added that, registrants whose data were incomplete and did not meet the commission’s business rules were also removed from the register.
Yakubu said; “Sadly, it seems that many registrants, either out of ignorance that they do not need to re-register if they had done so before, or a belief that our systems will not detect this infraction, have gone out to register again. This is despite repeated warnings by the Commission against this illegal action. In addition, there are also registrants whose data were incomplete and did not meet our Business Rules for inclusion in the register. Both categories, i.e. the failure of ABIS and incomplete data constitute invalid registrations.
“Right now, over 45 percent of all completed registrations in the United States are invalid, with the number climbing to 60 percent or more in some states. This infringement occurred in all of the Federation’s states. It affects every country. The Register of Voters will not contain these invalid registrations.
“As part of our commitment to transparency, we will make the distribution of registration numbers available to you at this news conference, including the percentages of genuine and invalid registrations on a State-by-State basis.” “The same data will be promptly uploaded to the Commission’s website and social media platforms,” Yakubu said.
