The Independent National Electoral Commission has dismissed reports querying the authenticity of its claim that the South-West accounted for the highest percentage of the pre-registration numbers in its ongoing Continuous Voter Registration exercise.
INEC recently described the claims as unfounded, stressing that the people doubting the figures lack a historical understanding of past voter registration trends.
Reacting via a press statement issued by the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, the commission revealed that the falsification accusations are simply not true.
According to him, the present figures are consistent with data from INEC’s 2021 online registration exercise because, within the first 24 hours of the portal’s launch on June 28, 2021, more than 59,000 accounts were created in Osun.
“The attention of the Independent National Electoral Commission has been drawn to a press statement attributed to the spokesperson of a political party on the data published by the Commission on the online pre-registration of voters.
In particular, the statement claimed that the number of pre-registrants in Osun State defies ‘historical patterns and demographic realities.’ Nothing can be further from the truth.
By the second week, Osun had 154,893 pre-registrants. That figure grew to 232,880 by the third week and 402,619 by the eleventh week. As of April 18, 2022, Osun led all states with 708,782 completed pre-registrations.
With regard to Osun State, the pattern is similar to what occurred in June 2021 when the Commission launched the online pre-registration for the first time. Within the first 24 hours of launching the portal on 28th June 2021, 59,331 accounts were created.
By the second week on 12th July 2021, a total of 456,909 accounts were active. Interestingly, Osun state led with 154,893 pre-registrations at the time. In the third week, 752,011 persons had pre-registered, and Osun State was at the front with 232,880.
By the eighth week on 23rd August 2021, 2,215,832 persons had pre-registered with Osun State still leading with 365,412. In the 11th week of the exercise on 13th September 2021, 2,953,094 individuals had pre-registered, with Osun State still in the lead with 402,619. By 18th April 2022, a total of 8,271,647 Nigerians had pre-registered, and Osun was ahead of all States with 708,782 registrations.
If the party were proactive enough, a simple search of past records already in the public domain would have revealed these facts. The Commission was upfront during the last CVR exercise by releasing the data on a weekly basis until it was concluded in 2022.
Besides, all persons who pre-registered online were required to physically visit a designated centre to complete their registration process during which their biometrics were captured,” it read.
Rotimi Oyekanmi further noted that INEC has always maintained transparency by publishing weekly updates throughout the 2021/2022 Continuous Voter Registration exercise.
He concluded by urging Nigerians and political parties to avoid jumping to conclusions based on sheer conjecture when they can rely on authentic data from the commission’s official platforms.
“Throughout the last CVR exercise which lasted over four quarters, the commission paused after each quarter to display the preliminary voters’ register for claims and objections, to enable citizens draw attention to any individual not qualified to be on the register.
At the same time, the Commission applied its robust Automated Biometric Identification System to detect and isolate double registrants.
Throughout the last CVR exercise which lasted over four quarters, the Commission paused after each quarter to display the preliminary voters’ register for claims and objections, to enable citizens draw attention to any individual not qualified to be on the register.
At the same time, the Commission applied its robust Automated Biometric Identification System to detect and isolate double registrants.
After all the processes and due diligence, over 14 million Nigerians were added to the National Register of Voters for the 2019 General Election, pushing the figure from almost 70 million to 84,004,084 voters. In the same manner, after the 2021/2022 CVR, over 9.4 million new voters were added to the Register, totalling 93,469,008 for the 2023 General Election.
While it is not in the commission’s place to develop conjectures on why any state has more registrants than others on our CVR portal, our duty as a commission, which we take seriously, is to ensure that only real persons, who meet the criteria stipulated in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Electoral Act 2022 are allowed to register.
The commission will continue to make information available to the public on the progress of the current online and in-person CVR.
We appeal to all well-meaning citizens to be circumspect in going public with information based on sheer conjecture when they can rely on authentic and verifiable data available from our official repositories for both ongoing and historical record of our activities,” it added.
