LP protests against underaged persons to stave off rigging and vote-buying
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Officials and supporters of the Labour Party (LP) have protested in Abuja against underaged voters and other discrepancies on the voter register published by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
LP Presidential Campaign Council spokesman Yunusa Tanko led the march from Unity Fountain to INEC headquarters.
“The purpose was to protest the issue of underaged voters and multiple registrations as widely reported, and demand for PVCs for those who are yet to be given,” he said, and it was also to highlight the fear of rigging and vote-buying.
The preliminary register of voters newly released on the INEC website has elicited heavy criticism over allegations of multiple registrations and discrepancies.
This led to an outcry on social media, especially Twitter, where netizens posted profiles of those who registered multiple times.
But INEC Information and Voter Education Committee Chairman Festus Okoye has countered the outrage is unnecessary as the preliminary register was released for people to study and raise objections where they discover anomalies or biodata errors.
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INEC seeks public help to clean up register
“We want people to look at the register and assist the Commission to check whether their names have been properly spelt; whether their personal particulars have been properly captured; whether some pictures are not upside down; whether there are still names of deceased persons on the register; whether there are obviously underaged persons on the register, so that we can correct them,” Okoye added, per The PUNCH.
“We use our automated biometric identification system to remove multiple and double registrations and then we did what we called manual adjudication to remove obviously underage persons.”
12,298,944 new registrants
INEC also disclosed it identified 2,780,756 ineligible registrants in Kano at the end of the automated biometric identification system check.
The figure was announced by new Kano Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) Zango Abdu during a meeting with members of election stakeholders, where he said 12,298,944 Nigerians completed registration as new voters.
