Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Joash Amupitan, on Wednesday disclosed that a review of the nation’s voters’ register revealed that the names of several deceased Nigerians remain on the list currently used for elections.

Amupitan made the disclosure during the commission’s first quarterly meeting with Civil Society Organisations, where he noted that INEC would soon commence a nationwide verification exercise to sanitise the register.

He explained that the planned verification is aimed at identifying and removing ineligible entries to improve the credibility and integrity of the electoral database.

He said, “When we look at the Voters Register for Anambra state during the off cycle elections in November, we discovered that the number of registered voters stood at over 2.9 million, but only about 600 came out to vote.

“This is just about 20 percent of the registered voters. So, we decided to take another look at the register and we discovered names of prominent Nigerian politicians who have died still on the register. That impact on the integrity of the register and we have to do a clean up because we don’t expect the dead to come from the grave to vote”.

Prof Amupitan also disclosed that the timetable for the 2027 was ready, but was being delayed in view of ongoing amendment to the electoral act which may affect the timetable. (The nation)

Update news