By Adedapo Adesanya
Over one million Nigerians have registered for the online voter’s pre-registration exercise, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said.
This was disclosed by the National Commissioner & Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Mr Festus Okoye, in a statement issued on Monday.
He further said the number of new registrants has risen to 1,006,661 as of 7 a.m. on Sunday, July 26. The exercise had commenced on June 28, 2021.
Mr Okoye noted in the statement that the detailed distribution of the registrants by age, State/FCT, gender, occupation and disability for week four of the exercise has been uploaded to the commission’s website and social media platforms.
However, the distribution by age still shows that 740,063 (or 73.5 per cent) are young Nigerians between the ages of 18 and 34.
“As earlier announced by the commission, physical or in-person registration begins today, Monday, July 26, 2021, at our 811 State and Local Government Area offices nationwide.
“The exact locations of the designated centres have already been uploaded to our website and social media platforms. For further details, citizens are encouraged to contact our state offices through the dedicated telephone numbers provided in the uploaded publication.
“Nigerians who pre-registered online can now complete their registration at those centres based on scheduled appointments. In addition, other Nigerians who prefer to register physically/in person can now do so at those centres.
“Both online pre-registration and physical/in-person registration will continue simultaneously until the suspension of the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise on 30th June 2022 to enable the Commission to clean up the data and compile the voters’ register for the 2023 General Election.
“The right to vote begins with the registration of voters. Thus, as we enter the next phase of the CVR exercise, we once again appeal to all citizens who wish to register to approach any of the Commission’s State or Local Government Area offices nationwide to do so,” Mr Okoye said.
The electoral umpire reminded citizens that the ongoing registration does not include those already registered as voters.
“The current exercise is only open to Nigerians who are 18 years and above who have not registered before. It is an offence under the Electoral Act for any citizen to register more than once,” Mr Okoye said.
Modupe Gbadeyanka