Victor EzejaFormer Nigerian diplomat, Ambassador Oseloka Obaze, has raised the alarm over alleged irregularities on the voter register in the custody of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Ambassador Obaze in a tweet on Thursday, November 17, 2022, said there are “evidence-backed reports” of underage registration and manipulation of the voter register as the 2023 elections draw closer.
Obaze, who was a candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Anambra State’s 2017 governorship election, is currently the Deputy Director-General/Campaign Manager for the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Organisation.
Obaze insists that the alleged irregularities undermine the integrity and credibility of INEC in the electoral process, and are also in breach of extant laws.
He therefore urges the Commission to remove such records and sanction staff found to be involved in the alleged misconduct.
“Incremental evidence-backed reports of voters’ register irregularities, manipulation & underage registration are deeply troubling. So too, is the seeming unwillingness by @inecnigeria to distribute PVCs expeditiously. These realities undermine INEC’s credibility & public trust,” Obaze argues.
“These activities are in breach of some extant laws. @inecnigeria need to enforce the pertinent reprisals for such misconduct, especially where there is evident complicity from within its ranks,” @OselokaH Obaze writes on Twitter on Thursday morning.
His protest follows a similar alarm raised by the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) at a world press conference two months ago in Abuja. The coalition had claimed and did a video demonstration to shown that there were fake voter registration record in INEC’s database.
CUPP had also claimed that it got intelligence about pressure being mounted on the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu to suspend the use of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BiVAS) during the 2023 general elections.
INEC subsequently denied the allegations, and has at different fora in recent times, declared that there was no going back on deployment of BiVAS during the upcoming elections.
The electoral body has also completed cleanup exercise on the voter data and published figures of eligible voters.
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Twitter users who reacted to Obaze’s statement, urged the political parties, lawyers and civil society organisations in the country to file action in court to compel INEC to do a thorough scrutiny of its database and expunge all data of fake and underage voters.
”I think lawyers or civil society organisations should sue INEC for these irregularities which is clear to all.
“INEC must get rid of the underage and double registrations before elections next year,” a Twitter user, identified as Akeem Adenuga, tweeted.
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with six years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Masters degree in Mass Communication.
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