Voter registration: INEC warns own staff over extortion

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Lagos State has registered 231, 435 voters in the continuous voters registration exercise as at yesterday. INEC had also deployed 30 additional Direct Data Capturing Machines to speed up the registration process across the state.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Sam Olumekun, who addressed a press conference at the INEC headquarters in Lagos, yesterday, also decried incidents of extortion in the ongoing registration exercise.

He said some of their officers were currently facing disciplinary action over extortion of potential voters who wanted to register, and warned the voters not to succumb to intimidation to bribe any official before they could be registered.

The commissioner disclosed that one officer was caught red-handed in Alimosho Local Government Area, urging members of the public to report any official demanding for gratification. He assured Lagosians that the commission would not rest on its oars in capturing all eligible voters in the INEC register. The commissioner added that with the deployment of 30 additional machines from INEC headquarters, the commission now registered about 2,500 people on daily basis across the 55 centres in Lagos. He said the commission had decentralised the registration process by rotating the registration areas across the 20 local government INEC offices in the state. Olumekun also clarified that the registration had not ended contrary to rumours in some quarters, saying the exercise would continue till further notice.