The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu has disclosed that as at March 27, 2018, the total number of Nigerians who have successfully registered in the ongoing voters registration exercise stood at 6,906,411.
He said the new registration figures were captured in about 1,446 centres scattered across the country with Rivers State topping the list of states with fresh voter registrations.
Other states that followed in order of sequence include: Anambra, Borno, Delta, Lagos, Cross-River, Osun, Enugu, Kano and Plateau.
Mahmood gave the figures at a civil society colloquium organised by the Independent Service Delivery Monitoring Group (ISDMG), a non- governmental organisation engaged in election monitoring in Abuja, on Tuesday.
According to the electoral body, a comprehensive list of the newly registered voters will be published in the Commission’s website before the end of this week to enable Nigerians scrutinise it.
He described the feat as laudable because approximately seven million people would have been disenfranchised in the 2019 general elections.
While expressing satisfaction that this has been largely due to voter enlightenment by relevant stakeholders, he said not a single petition or complaints have been received by INEC regarding the conduct of the exercise.
He said between 8th to 12th of April 2018, INEC will be playing host to chairmen of electoral commissions in West Africa and Southern Africa, where their discussions will centre on technology and electoral processes.
The INEC boss also gave assurance that despite challenges confronting the commission, their loyalty will always be tilted to the Nigerian people rather than individuals or institutions.
Meanwhile, Chima Amadi, Convener of the colloquium, described the progress recorded by INEC under its new leadership as an indication of an organisation responding positively in the build up to 2019 general elections.
He said it was unfortunate that the security agencies and the political gladiators were not measuring up to standard even as the election draws closer, rather they were busy devising means to thwart the electoral process.
“While it is our considered opinion that INEC has been the most responsive of all government agencies involved in the election value chain, taking in advice and constructive criticisms and adjusting its activities to reflect same.
“This much cannot be said about others within that chain, the security agencies continue to behave true to type and are even getting worse, while political gladiators horn their manipulative stock-in-trade.
“However, we are resolved to take them to task with the same resilience that we used in getting INEC to act properly, for the 2019 elections, the ISDMG will be deploying cutting edge technology to the field to ensure that history is properly documented,”v Amadi told participants at the one day colloquium.
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