Injects 83,645 Into Voters List
Injects 83,645 Into Voters List
Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, may have pulled a fast one on Nigerians with the announcement that only 68,833,476 Nigerians are registered to vote in the forthcoming general elections. However, a thorough check by The UNION, indicates that the voter list, as announced by Jega on January 13, and re-affirmed on February 17, as the working figure for INEC, contains 83, 645 names more. This means 83, 645 extra permanent voter cards. In essence, by the time INEC distributes a total of 68,833,476 voter cards, it will be left with an excess of 83, 645 PVCs, whose owners are not known. The UNION had subjected the figures published by INEC to checks. Both manual and electronic calculations of the number of registered voters in the 36 states and the FCT, showed that actual number of registered voters is 68, 917, 121. This is against 68,833,476 declared by Prof. Jega.
These figures are also posted on INEC’s website and accessible by everyone. While the Commission has maintained this figure as the true and certified number of voters in the country, The UNION can authoritatively state that the Independent National Electoral Commission is working in error of 83,645 voters, registered or unregistered. This cast a major doubt on the integrity of INEC as what happens to the excess of 83,645 is not known to Nigerians. Also, the calculations for zonal collection of the PVCs are also embarrassingly faulty. It indicates that the commission may have distributed more PVCs than it has declared. This suggests that some under-the-table PVC distributions may have been made by INEC. According to INEC, total number of PVCs collected as at February 17 was 52,275,367. But when this figure was broken down to zonal collections, it indicated that some 233,598 PVCs had been distributed.
According to a critical analysis of the figures presented by INEC, upon which it said 52,275,367 were distributed as at 6pm on February 17, a total of 15, 104, 626 PVCs were distributed in the Northwest zone, while 7,755,374 was distributed in the northeast zone and 7,863,515 PVCs were given out in the north central zone including the FCT. Similarly, the analysis showed that 5,646,542 PVCs had been distributed in the southeast while 7,755,374 cards were given out in the south-south zone and 8,589,387 had been distributed in the south west states. The sum of this, calculated manually and electronically, returned a total of 52,508,965 as against 52,275,367 published by INEC, on its website, as total number of PVCs so far collected by voters. The excess figure remains a mystery given that 83,645 more names are captured in the INEC list of registered voters as published on February 17. According to the Independent National Electoral Commission figures on the sub-head “Number of Registered Voters, (C) which totalled 68,833,476. However, the auto-sum of the same figures of the 36 states and the FCT adds up to 68, 917,121, registering a difference of 83, 645 which the commission would need to do some explanation about. What may have informed this kind of embarrassing public presentation of figures to be used for the elections.
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