The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been told to expunge fictitious names and those of dead Nigerians from its voters register, describing it as bogus.
The House of Representatives made the call at the plenary on Thursday, after the unanimous adoption of a motion of urgent public importance moved by a member, Leke Abejide.
The motion was titled ‘Urgent Need for Independent National Electoral Commission to Develop Mechanism to Clean Up Its System of Dead and Fictitious Registered Voters.’
Abejide, said INEC’s register is “full of millions of people who are dead and non-existent persons.
“In the last general election, it was glaring and crystal clear that people that were long dead had their names still displayed in the voters’ register. Even my own deceased father, who passed on long ago, still has his name displayed on the board.
“Apart from dead voters, there are millions of fictitious voters who do not exist anywhere on this planet earth but have their names on INEC’s register of voters. It is believed that this came to be as a result of double or multiple registrations by Nigerians who had or have the intention of rigging elections, but with the advent of the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System, these faceless individuals can no longer vote anymore.”
The House resolved that “INEC should conduct vigorous public enlightenment for all Nigerians to be much aware of what makes the voters register bogus, which is the numbers of dead and fictitious persons.”
The lawmakers also asked the INEC to develop a mechanism or software application, where families who lost their loved ones can report the demise of a particular Permanent Voter Card number so that it can be duly deleted from the Commission’s register, polling unit and ward.
“Whoever does not vote in two election cycles back to back be deleted from INEC register as non-existing human beings,” the House resolved.
Another resolution was that INEC should include voter verification in its continuous voter registration exercise to identify those on the register who are still alive as well as fish out those with fake registration.
Furthermore, the House mandated its Committee on Electoral Matters to ensure compliance with the resolutions.
INEC had on January 11, 2023, prior to the just-concluded general elections, released the final list of voters for the 2023 general elections. The number of registered voters rose from 84,004,084 in 2019 to 93,469,008 in 2023.
The PUNCH had reported that for the geopolitical zones, the North-West is leading, having risen from 20.15m to 22,255,562; followed by the South-West, from 16,292,212 to 17,958,966; North-Central, from 13,366,070 to 15,363,731; South-South, from 12,841,279 to 14,440,714; North-East, from 11,289,293 to 12,542,429; and the South-East, from 10,057,130 to 10,907,606.
For states, Lagos is leading with 7,060,195; followed by Kano with 5,921,370; and Kaduna with 4,335,208.
The gender configuration showed that the males are 49,054,162 or 52.5 per cent, and the females are 44,414,846 or 47.5 per cent.
In terms of age group, voters who are youths (18-34) total 37,060,399; middle-aged (35-49) are 33,413,591; elderly (50-69) are 17,700,270; and the old (70+) are 5,294,748.
A breakdown of the figures allocated to each state showed that some states recorded more fresh voters than others.
Abia voters increased by 187,916, from 1,932,892 in 2019 to 2,120,808 in 2023; Adamawa by 223,483, from 1,973,083 to 2,196,566; Akwa Ibom by 237,691, from 2,119,727 to 2,357,418; Anambra by 208,441, from 2,447,996 to 2,656,437; Bauchi by 286,425, from 2,462,843 to 2,749,268; Bayelsa by 133,680, from 923,182 to 1,056,862; Benue by 297,596, from 2,480,131 to 2,777,727; Borno by 197,325, from 2,315,956 to 2,513,281; Cross River by 239,177, from 1,527,289 to 1,766,466;
Delta by 366,423, from 2,845,274 to 3,221,697; Ebonyi by 137,713, from 1,459,933 to 1,597,646; Edo by 290,547, from 2,210,534 to 2,501,081; Ekiti by 77,680, from 909,967 to 987,647; Enugu by 168,777, from 1,944,016 to 2,112,793; Gombe by 181,401, from 1,394,393 to 1,575,794; Imo by 147,629, from 2,272,293 to 2,419,922; Jigawa by 240,192, from 2,111,106 to 2,351,298; Kaduna by 404,716, from 3,932,492 to 4,335,208; Kano by 463,623, from 5,457,747 to 5,921,370; Katsina by 286,489, from 3,230,230 to 3,516,719; Kebbi by 225,810, from 1,806,231 to 2,032,041; Kogi by 286,304, from 1,646,350 to 1,932,654; Kwara by 259,470, from 1,406,457 to 1,695,927;
