From Wilfred Eya, Romanus Ugwu and Sunday Ani Abuja
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has come under attacks for allegedly showing bias in the registration of voters in various zones of the country, particularly in the South East and South South.
A highly placed source alleged that the plan was to disenfranchise the South East and South South through INEC’s biased number of invalid registrants in the two geopolitical zones.
This is as concerned stakeholders from the two zones have queried how a greater number of registrants would be invalidated for errors from the South East and South South with high literacy levels than the North West.
In a recent document, INEC in its analysis of voter registration data placed the total number of invalid registrants for the two zones at 1,369,713 at the end of its continuous voter registration exercise.
It announced that invalid registrants in the South South stood at 859,165 while in the South East it was 510,548.
The voter registration analysis showed 49.3 per cent of the two zones combined accounted for nearly half of all the rejected registrations in the country.
According to the release, while other regions had an average rejection rate of 17 per cent, the two geopolitical zones had an average rejection rate of 35.2 per cent.
The data, it was learnt, has fuelled fears in the South East and South South of INEC lending itself to be used in rigging the 2023 polls in favour of certain regions of the country.
In the data, at 1.5 million and 1.4 million completed registrations respectively, the North East and South East had a registration difference of about 100,00.
It also showed that the commission after cleaning the preliminary register with ABIS, left the South East with 930,000 additional valid votes, while the North East got 1.3 million.
The same scenario played out when the South South numbers are compared to that of the North Central or North West.
States most affected by the voter invalidation are disproportionately in the Southern regions, while the least affected states are in the North.
Giving further analysis on zonal basis, the commission revealed that in the North West for instance, the total registration stood at 2,514,273, invalid 393,603 (15.7 per cent), valid 2,120,670 and a voter register of 22.1 million.
In the South West, the total registration is 2,039,982, invalid 399,608, (10 per cent), valid 1,640,374 with a register of 17.5 million.
For the North Central, the total registration stood at 2,314,368, invalid 345,324, (14.9 per cent), valid, 1,969,044, and register 15.0 million. The South-south has a total registration of 2,458,095, invalid 859,165, (35 per cent), valid 1,598,930, and registered 14.2 million.
Total registration in the North East is 1,531,070, invalid, 272,508, (17.8 per cent), valid 1,258,562, registered 12.5 million. South-East total registration is 1,441,156, invalid 510,548, (35.4 per cent), valid 930,608 and registered 10.5 million. The total number of registration stood at 12,298,944, invalid 2,780,756, (22.6 per cent), valid 9,518,188, while the total register is 93.5 million.
Lambasting the commission over the invalidation, a source who spoke to Daily Sun in confidence said:
“How will INEC convince Nigerians that the zones with such high literacy level will record more invalid registration than other Northern parts of the country? It did not add up at all as far as I am concerned because in the perception of many, it looks like a clinical method to perfect the rigging of the 2023 in favour of certain region of the country. There is just more to it than meet the eyes.”
President, Middle Belt Forum, Dr. Pogu Bitrus said he would not know how INEC arrived at the figures, saying other reasons apart from double registration could have informed what happened.
He, however, urged those whose registrations had been cancelled in the South East and South south to come out if they know that they were duly registered, and testify that they have been shortchanged and that INEC is being partial.
“Certainly, in this country today, we have so many foreigners; majority of hawkers in Abuja and other parts of Nigeria are from Niger Republic and Chad and this may have increased the number in the Northwest number of registrants,” he said.
However, defending itself against such conspiracy theory, INEC hinged the invalidation in the two most affected geopolitical zones on their involvement in double and or multiple registration.
While threatening that the commission would prosecute the culprits, a source in INEC denied the plan to disenfranchise a particular section of the country.
“What really is invalid registration? For the most part, it simply means the individuals who have engaged in double or multiple registration, and by implication, breaking the law. Double registration is an offence under the Electoral Act 2022 and ignorance is not an excuse.
“The commission used ABIS to clean the preliminary register, and, among other things, knock off the second, illegal registration while retaining the initial registration. If INEC takes or accepts the second registration, it will certainly have a bloated Register of Voters with fictitious names and without integrity.
“In fact, INEC should be prosecuting these offenders as prescribed by the Electoral Act. But people promoting the wrong narrative think that INEC has disallowed those categorised under invalid registration from registering,” the source said.