2019: INEC Removes Over 300,000 Voters From Register

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said it has removed over 300,000 names from its voters register, as at last week, as the Commission continued preparations for 2019 general election.

INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this when he received a delegation of ECOWAS Pre-Election Fact Finding Mission, led by the Chairman of Sierra Leone’s National Electoral Commission, Mohammed Conteh, yesterday, in Abuja.

Yakubu said the names were removed from the register after Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) was carried out on the biometry data of registered voters.

He said that cleaning up of the register has started, and added that the Commission would between today and November 12, display register of voters, nationwide, for claims and objections.

The INEC chairman urged Nigerians to seize the opportunity to assist the Commission identify names of ineligible voters for further clean-up.

Yakubu also disclosed that the commission would, by November 9 or November 10, release statistics of political parties that nominated candidates for governorship elections to be conducted in 29 states and the Houses of Assembly in all states.

“For the registered voters, we have been cleaning up on our own, using the AFIS.

“As at last week, before I travelled, I was told that over 300,000 names were dropped after the automatic fingerprints identification system.

“But, cleaning of the voter register is not the sole responsibility of the Commission; it is also the responsibility of every Nigerian.

“That is why the law says that we should display the register for a period of six days between November 6 and November 12.

“We will display the voter register in 120, 000 polling units nationwide.

“I will like to seize this opportunity to appeal to the citizens to check when we display the register so that they can draw the attention of the Commission to the prevalence of any ineligible voter on the register so that we can further clean up the register.”

Yakubu told the Mission that INEC is well prepared for the 2019 general election.

“In fact, we can say that the 2019 general election is perhaps the most deliberately well planned election in our history.

“We have finished the strategic planning; we have finished our strategic programme of action and we have completed the election project plan.

“We have issued the timetable and schedule of activities for the 2019 general elections.”

Speaking earlier, leader of the mission, Conteh said that they were in Nigeria to garner relevant information and see how prepared INEC was for the general election.