•••20m PVCs Uncollected – InterSociety
••• 10 Million Aliens, Underage Voters In Voters Register
By John Ugo , Awka
The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) on Monday raised the alarm that more than 30 million citizens of Nigeria including those within 18 years and above stand to be denied the ongoing continuous voters registration exercise by the Independence National Electoral Commission (INEC) ahead of 2023 general elections.
Chairman, board of trustees of the group, Comrade Emeka Umeagbalasi stated this in a statement to newsmen in Awka the Anambra state capital.
He noted that the none capturing of these 30m citizens or more is ill-conceived and politically motivated.
He accused INEC to have inexplicably and suspiciously shut down its online fresh voters’ registration portal, thereby shutting out millions of computer literate prospective registrants and forcing millions of others into frustration and registration center accessibility hardships.
According to the body, “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).”
The NGO said that available national and international demographic statistics shows that Nigeria’s estimated population as at 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, the total registered voters in the country as at Feb 2019 was 84m with a fraction of others captured between July 2016 and Dec 2021. INEC also recently announced that as at May 2022, it had registered 10.2m Nigerians, out of which 6.5m were successfully captured; with 4.5m being youths in 19 and 34 age bracket.”
“It is most likely correct to say that about 30m eligible citizens in Nigeria have not been registered as voters by INEC. 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.”
The body said the present National Register of Voters still bears 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.”
Umeagbalasi insisted that the current National Register of Voters for 2023 Presidential/General Elections can only be credible and acceptable if it is genuinely cleansed and rid of the 10m minors and illegal aliens as well as dead and dormant citizens.
He maintained 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’.
