2019: INEC Intensifies Clean-up of Voters Register, Delists 299 Aliens

With exactly 350 days ahead of the 2019 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has embarked on clean-up of the voter register and has so far delisted 299 aliens.

The Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this yesterday in Abuja during first quarterly consultative meeting with security agencies for 2018 under the auspices of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES).

Yakubu said that clean-up would focus against underage voters, aliens, and persons registered in abstentia amongst others.

He said: "Before we finalise the voter register for the 2019 general elections, the Commission will undertake a thorough Clean-up of the existing register.

"Under Section 12 (1) of the Electoral Act, those who are below the statutory age of 18 years, aliens, persons registered in absentia, those barred by statue or regulations from registering as voters and persons who do not ordinarily reside, work or originate from the area covered by the registration are ineligible. We will thoroughly scrutinise all prospective registrants in the ongoing exercise in order to ensure that only eligible registrants are registered."

"I am happy to report that the Commission has been able to remove from the voter register the names of 299 aliens who registered on the false pretence that they were Nigerians. This was done on the basis of Information received from the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS)."

To this end, the INEC Chairman said the Commission had agreed with NIS to deploy their personnel to registration centres nationwide to ensure that only Nigerians register to vote in the election.