Why Dead Nigerians’ Names Are Still On Voter Register – INEC Chair
Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, has stated that the commission’s inability to obtain enough data on death in the country has prevented it from removing the names of deceased Nigerians from the voter register.
He went on to say that while INEC had been employing technology to delete ineligible people and multiple registrants on a regular basis, the technology could not help the commission locate and remove dead people from its records.
On Friday, Yakubu received the Chairman of the National Population Commission, Nasir Kwarra, at the commission’s offices in Abuja.
He did, however, call on the NPC to make sure that data on dead people in the country is made accessible to the commission so that the voter register may be properly cleaned up.
He said, “Perhaps you may wish to start by availing us with the list of prominent Nigerians who have passed on, civil and public servants compiled from the official records of government Ministries, Departments and Agencies and other Nigerians from hospital and funeral records across the country.
“We appreciate that this is a herculean task but that is partly why we have the National Population Commission. We are confident that the NPC has the capacity to do so. This information is critical for INEC to enhance the credibility of the National Register of Voters”.
According to Yakubu, the NPC and INEC have embarked on one of the most imaginative and extensive inter-agency collaborations in Nigeria in the area of delimitation of boundaries of electoral constituencies.
Earlier, Kwarra said the NPC was awaiting the approval of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), to conduct a national census by the first quarter of 2022.
According to him, the Enumeration Area Demarcation exercise which is a prelude to a national census was still ongoing, adding that INEC aims to complete the enumeration by October.
