300,000 voters removed from INEC register

Over 300,000 names have been removed from the voters register, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said.  This is coming as the nation prepares for the generation elections come February, 2019.

INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this when he received a delegation of ECOWAS Pre-Election Fact Finding Mission, led by the Chairman of Sierra Leone’s National Electoral Commission, Mohammed Conteh, on Monday, in Abuja.

The electoral umpire said the names which were removed as at last week were done after Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) was carried out on the biometry data of registered voters.

Prof. Yakubu said that cleaning up of the register has started, and added that the Commission would between November 6 and 12, display register of voters, nationwide, for claims and objections.

The INEC chairman urged Nigerians to seize the opportunity to assist the Commission identify names of ineligible voters for further clean-up.

“For the registered voters, we have been cleaning up on our own, using the AFIS.

“As at last week, before I travelled, I was told that over 300,000 names were dropped after the automatic fingerprints identification system.

“But, cleaning of the voter register is not the sole responsibility of the Commission; it is also the responsibility of every Nigerian,” he said.