…says National Voters’ Register For 2023 Polls Must Contain 100m-110m PVCs Holders
…Says 64m Currently Have PVC
The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) has said that no fewer than 30 million citizens of Nigeria involving those 18 years and above have been denied registration ahead of the 2023 Presidential Election.
Intersociety said that none capturing of these 30m Nigerian citizens or more is ill-conceived and politically motivated as if this was not enough. In a Press Statement made available by the Principal Officers of intersociety: Emeka Umeagbalasi, Chinwe Umeche and Chidimma Udegbunam, they said that INEC has inexplicably and suspiciously shut down its online fresh voters’ registration portal.
According to them, the move has led INEC to shut out millions of computer-literate prospective registrants and forced millions of others into frustration and registration centre accessibility hardships.
“It must therefore be clearly stated that denying eligible citizens, irrespective of their tribe, religion, gender and class, their rights to vote (political participation and inclusion) is a serious violation of their fundamental human rights. Such chaotic denial also constitutes a serious threat to local, national, regional and international peace and security.
“It is also a serious breach of the citizens’ constitutional rights to freedom of assembly and association and freedom from discrimination and their counterpart provisions in the Int’l Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of UN 1976 (ratified by Nigeria in 1993) and the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights of 1981 (ratified and domesticated by Nigeria in 1983).
“According to the current United Nations population statistics including the Worldometer (world’s live statistics on population, economy and so on), Nigeria’s estimated population as of 25th June 2022 is 216, 225, 495 or 216.5m, out of which 55% or about 120m represent those in 18 years and above.
“By INEC’s recent official statistics tracked in several print and online media, the total registered voters in the country as of Feb 2019 was 84m with a fraction of others captured between July 2016 and Dec 2021. INEC also recently announced that as of May 2022, it had registered 10.2m Nigerians, out of which 6.5m were successfully captured; with 4.5m being youths in the 19 and 34 age bracket,” they said.
Intersociety said that it is most likely correct to say that not less than 30m eligible citizens in Nigeria have not been registered as voters by INEC and also no fewer than 20m registered voters have been denied their Permanent Voters Cards by the Commission.
“An estimated total of 10m others presently contained in Nigeria’s National Register of Voters are strongly suspected to still bear the identities of minors and allowed illegal aliens.
“In other words, the present National Register of Voters still bears a roguish outlook and can only be credible, nationally acceptable across religious and ethnic divides and factored in coherence with the Commission’s newly acquired and imputed ‘Voter’s Enrolment Device (IReV)’ and ‘Bimodal Voter’s Accreditation System (BVAS)’ when it is cleansed and rid of the estimated over 10m minors and aliens and updated to accommodate the 30m eligible but unregistered Nigerians.
“Therefore, the current National Register of Voters for 2023 Presidential/General Elections can only be widely or country-wide credible and acceptable if it is genuinely cleansed and rid of the 10m minors and illegal aliens as well as dead and dormant citizens.
Intersociety said that the National Register of Voters to be used in the forthcoming Presidential Election and auxiliary others must be that containing ‘110m-120m registered voters in Nigeria with at least 100m-110m PVCs holders’.
“The current situation is against the present PVC holders in Nigeria put at 64m voters and the citizens’ strongly suspected double policies of the Commission whereby the Commission during Presidential Election applies two policies of strict application of its technologies, especially its “Voters’ Enrolment Device (IReV) and Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS)” (formerly Card Readers) in the South (especially Southeast, South-South and non-natives held areas the Southwest) or administratively causes widespread failure of such technologies in the named Southern parts;
“And programs same with widespread success frequency or substantial reversion to manual accreditation and voting in the North (i.e. Katsina, Borno, Yobe, Sokoto, Zamfara, Kebbi, Niger, Bauchi, Jigawa, non-Southern Kaduna, Nasarawa, Kogi, Adamawa, Gombe) must stop and be discontinued. The INEC’s policies from registration of voters/issuance of their PVCs to the conduct of all elections in the country must fully reflect the same policies and conducts across the board throughout the country.”
Intersociety said that from their recent field checks, an estimated 20m unregistered voters are found in the South, out of which 10m eligible voters in the Southeast are yet to be captured by INEC. Estimated 4.5m others are yet to be captured in the South-South while 5.5m remained unregistered in the South-West.
“Many, if not most of those affected in the South-West are non-natives, especially members of Igbo Ethnic Nationality residing in Lagos and Ogun States. Out of the 10m unregistered voters in the North, at least 40%-50% are non-northerners, especially members of Igbo Ethnic Nationality; 35%-40% are non-Muslim northerners while the remaining 10% belong to Muslim citizens.
“Apart from threats of violence from radical natives especially the Muslims, being responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement of the named segment (.i.e. pastoral Igbo citizens) of the population, they are further disenfranchised through deliberately created bureaucratic hitches including the shrinking number of registration centres/polling booths in their held areas, inadequate number of INEC’s manpower and registration machines and malfunctioning of such machines. These are also the case during the issuance and collection of PVCs.”
