• Southeast trails behind with least applicants
• Commission suspends Voter registration exercise
• Lagos, Kano, Delta Get Lion Share as Ekiti, Yobe trails behind
• INEC cautions Nigerians against fake registration website
Following the suspension of the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise, which commenced on June 28, 2020, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Monday announced that number of fresh registrants that completed their registration stood at 12,298,944.
Also read: 2023: Your PVC Is Your Meal Ticket – INEC
The commission had ended the exercise on Sunday 31 July, after a one-month extension from the initial 30 June deadline.
A notice on the website reads, “The CVR Exercise has been suspended. Access to log-in to check the status of your completed applications will soon be restored.”
The exercise is said to be not concluded but suspended till after the 2023 general elections.
The INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, on June 28, 2021, flagged off the resumption of the online CVR, starting with the opening of the online registration portal, which was followed with the applicants’ physical registration on 26 July 2021, after the 2019 general elections.
“The number of registrants who have completed online and physical registration was 12,298,944, made up of 6,074,078 males and 6,224,866 females of which 87,083 were people living with disabilities (PWDs) and 8,784,677 youths,” the report said.
A breakdown of the figure by The www.freshvoicenewsmedia.com.ng revealed that, of the fresh 12,298,944 registrants, 6,359,711 came from the North while 5,939,233 reside in the South, indicating a disparity of 420, 478.
Going by geo-political zones, the Northwest recorded the highest with 2,514,273 new registrants, while the Southsouth trails closely with 2,458,095 applications. The Northcentral followed with 2,314,368 completed registration, while Southwest has 2,039,982. Also, about 1,531,070 applications came from the Northeast while the Southeast has the least completed registration with 1,441,156.
A state-by-state breakdown revealed that Lagos and Kano has the highest number of new registrants with 585,620 and 569,103 respectively.
Delta followed closely with 523, 517 applications with Yobe and Ekiti recorded the lowest with 152,414 and 124, 844 applications.
Meanwhile, the commission on Monday warned Nigerians to be wary of fake voter registration websites on the internet.
INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, said the warning followed the discovery of an online site urging Nigerians to enrol for voter card and PVC registration claiming that the Federal Government has approved individual voter card registration online to avoid the unnecessary crowd in the “NIMC” centres.
Okoye said the site is not linked to the Commission and the link/portal is spurious and from a dubious source.
According to him, INEC is the only body constitutionally and legally mandated to conduct the registration of persons qualified to vote in any election in Nigeria and to update and revise the register when the need arises.
He said: “The Commission is solely responsible for organizing, undertaking, and supervising national elections in the country and does not share this responsibility with anybody or organization.
“Members of the public are strongly advised not to succumb to the antics of online scammers and should avoid such fake sites.
“The Commission has concluded the Continuous Voter Registration exercise nationwide and does not need to open an additional site or portal for the purposes of registration of voters.”
