BREAKING: INEC Declares 106,280 Voters in Ekiti, Osun Invalid

• Ahead of the gubernatorial polls in Ekiti and Osun states, INEC in a fresh update said thousands of voters violated the stipulations of the registration exercise
• With this latest update, no fewer than 1,126,359 voters have been disqualified by INEC to partake in the gubernatorial polls
• These statistics mean that 44.6% of the newly registered voters were recorded invalid and unqualified to vote

No fewer than 106,280 voters in Ekiti and Osun States have been declared invalid by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the Nation newspaper reports.

According to the electoral body, the affected voters violated the stipulated guidelines for the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise.

Legit.ng gathered that in Ekiti 17,640 out of the 40,234 registered voters were disqualified while 88,630 voters were also disqualified in Osun out of the 218,142 new registered voters.

INEC record 44.6% invalid newly registered voters

According to the statistics released by INEC, the percentage of disqualified voters represented 43.9% and 40.6% for both Ekiti and Osun respectively.

While reeling out the stats at a press conference, the chairman of INEC, Mahmood Yakubu stated that the electoral body recorded 2,523,458 new registrations, while 1,126,359, representing 44.6% were invalid.

He said:

“While the number of new registrants is very impressive and demonstrates the eagerness of Nigerians to vote in the forthcoming elections, the Commission has a duty to clean up the data to ensure that only eligible Nigerians are registered.

“As you are aware, the foundation for any credible election rests on the credibility of the Register of Voters. The introduction of the biometric registration of voters in 2011 has helped to sanitize the Register. You may recall that initially, 73,528,040 Nigerians were registered in 2011.

“Using the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS), the Commission was able to remove 4,239,923 invalid registrations. Consequently, the Register of Voters for the 2015 General Election stood at 69,288,117 voters.

“Subsequently, some 432,173 new voters were added to the Register during the CVR exercises ahead of the off-cycle Governorship elections in five States (Bayelsa, Kogi, Edo, Ondo and Anambra) from late 2015 to early 2017, bringing the total number of registered voters in Nigeria to 69,720,350.”

INEC releases final list of candidates for Osun poll

In another development, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Tuesday, April 12, published the final list of candidates for the Osun governorship election.

It also published the personal particulars and list of candidates for the Osun state governorship election in its state and local government offices as required by law.

The commission however revealed that the names were in compliance with the Electoral Act 2022.

2023: Respect court orders, INEC charges political parties

Also, INEC has urged political parties to uphold and obey the standing order of the judiciary and other statutory provisions of the law.

This was made known by INEC secretary, Rose Oriaran Anthony at a meeting with a political advocacy group known as Guardian of Democracy and Rule of law.

Anthony while in the presence of the group said the electoral body is geared towards ensuring that all activities of the electoral will be in strict adherence to the statutory tenets of the electoral law.

Source: Legit.ng