Seven million out of ten million Nigerians attempted but failed to complete their online pre-registration as voters during the last nationwide Continuous Voter Registration CVR, exercise, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has said.
Mr Festus Okoye, National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee said this on Monday while reacting to media reports that some seven million Nigerians who applied for online pre-registration as voters during the last nationwide Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) were denied the opportunity to complete their registration and consequently the collection of their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs). This claim is misleading.
Arguing that the story is misleading, Okoye said that the online pre-registration of voters introduced by the Commission on June 28, 2021, which gave registrants the opportunity to commence the registration online and then book for an appointment at their convenience to complete the physical Biometric Capture at designated centers was a novel idea leveraging on technology to ease the registration process in addition to the walk-in option at physical centres, where Nigerians could commence and complete thier registration simultaneously without going through the online pre-registration procedure.
Many took the chance but failed to complete the process giving an incorrect picture of the actual registrants at the completion of the exercise.
He said, “For the online pre-registration, a total 10,487,972 commenced the process. However, by the deadline of the exercise, 3,444,378 Nigerians completed their pre-registration physically at the designated centres in line with the Commission’s policy. Some 7,043,594 applicants did not complete the registration. Again, the Commission made the information public. This is what some people are now using to say that they were denied the opportunity when in reality they failed to either complete the online enrolment or appear physically at the designated centres to complete the process.
“A breakdown of the 7,043,594 incompletes online pre-registrations is as follows:
1. 4,161,775 citizens attempted but either did not complete online pre-registration or abandoned it and went for the physical registration instead.
2. 2,881,819 registrants completed the online pre-registration but did not show up to complete the physical Biometric Capture at designated centres before the deadline.
“Therefore, it is clear that no Nigerians were deliberately denied the opportunity to complete their online pre-registration.
“We appeal citizens to always adhere to timelines as against the endless agitation for eleventh hour extension of set deadlines.”
