Dead, Underage Voters – Yiaga exposes rot in INEC register, rejects Amupitan’s clean-up claims, demands independent audit

Yiaga Africa executive director Samson Itodo says the number of questionable voter registration records in the voter register exceeds the 1.5 million flagged by the Independent National Electoral Commission.

Mr Itodo stated this on Thursday, in response to INEC’s spokesman, Lawrence Bayode, who, in an interview on Channels TV, disclosed that some registration officials exploited their access to the commission’s registration platform to introduce 1,545,052 irregularities into the national voter database.

However, Mr Itodo, in an interview on ARISE TV, said, “Our considered opinion at YIAGA Africa is that the impurities in the voters’ register are beyond the 1.5 million reeled out. YIAGA Africa started auditing the voter register as far back as 2018. We started with the Edo and Bayelsa voter register.

“We found duplications, dead persons on the register (which INEC also admitted), multiple registrants, underage registrants, and other errors you’ll find on the register.

“Even the register that had been released by INEC, whether today or previously, is not a reflection of the level of impurities, but that does not mean that there are certain aspects of the voter register that are not credible.”

Mr Itodo said the voters’ revalidation INEC wants to conduct, which is now too close to the 2027 elections, should have been done right after the 2023 elections, pointing out that the exercise can only be done after the 2027 polls.

INEC chair Joash Amupitan, on Wednesday, stated that over 1.27 million of the flagged 1.5 million questionable voter registrations were confirmed invalid and removed from the register ahead of next year’s elections, adding that the electoral body is cleaning up the register ahead of the final version slated for December 15.

“However, in the current dispensation, even if INEC has eliminated 1.5 million registered voters, in this climate of distrust, the public would want a situation where there is an independent review to really confirm that some of these irregularities have been resolved.

“That’s why stakeholders are calling for an independent audit or independent review of this current register, because, given the short timeline that we have, we just need to look at what’s the most feasible intervention. What INEC has done needs to be subjected to public scrutiny,” said Mr Itodo.