The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced that it detected over 60,000 duplicate voter registration in Anambra State at the end first quarter of the Continuous Voters Registration. Having initially revealed that, Anambra State had a total of 138,802 new registrants, the commission has said it removed 62,698 persons in the process of cleaning up the registration data. This according to the commission, leaves the total number of new registrants at 77,475 for the state.
Speaking during an emergency meeting with political parties in Abuja, Chairman of the Commission, Prof Mahmood Yakubu said “as a testimony to the effectiveness of our new system for checking double and multiple registrations, the Commission found out that some 62,698 persons who are already registered voters in Anambra State went ahead to register again. These double or multiple registrations are invalid by law.
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“We have archived these registrations and will not print new PVCs for them. Their old PVCs remain valid and they can use them to vote at the Polling Units where they registered and probably voted in previous elections. The same cleaning-up exercise is going on nationwide.
In total the commission said, it has registered a total of 2,525,471 voters for the 6 November governorship elections in Anambra State.
Prof Yakubu said, “as soon as it is over, the Commission will provide further details to Nigerians on the situation in other states of the federation and action to be taken on the matter,” the INEC chairman told political parties in attendance.”
He expressed concerns over the growing state of insecurity in Anambra, the safety of its personnel and facilities which bare the mark of recent arsonist attacks.
Prof Yakubu cautioned political parties against utterances and actions that could worsen the insecurity in the state and thereby “make the work of the Commission, political parties and security agencies even more difficult. It may also lead to voter apathy.
