By David Onimisi Lawani
The chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Mahmood Yakubu has appealed to the National Population Commission, NPC, to assist the Commission to enable it to have accurate data of Nigerians who have died and those who are still living in their register.
Yakubu made this appeal during a courtesy visit by the chairman of the NPC at the Commission headquarters in Abuja stressing that he knew that it is a difficult task but it is achievable.
He said availing the Commission of data of prominent Nigerians who have died will enable the Electoral umpire to clean the register and also assist it to be up to date.
According to Yakubu: ” Therefore, I wish to once more appeal to the Chairman of the NPC, in your capacity as the registrar of births and deaths in Nigeria, to periodically avail us of the data of deceased Nigerians so that we can use the official information from your Commission to further clean up the voters’ register.
“Perhaps you may wish to start by availing us with the list of prominent Nigerians who have passed on, civil and public servants compiled from the official records of Government Ministries, Departments, and Agencies and other Nigerians from hospital and funeral records across the country.
We appreciate that this is a Herculean task but that is partly why we have a National Population Commission. We are confident that NPC has the capacity to do so.
This information is critical for INEC to enhance the credibility of the National Register of Voters”, he said.
The INEC boss maintained that the Commission is also exploring other ways of forging cooperation with it so that it can provide data that will allow it to sustain the credibility of the national voter register.
He said it has been using the Automatic Biometric Identification System, ABIS, to identify multiple registrants and also remove those who are ineligible.
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“We will also explore other areas of cooperation to enable us to serve Nigerians better. Of immediate interest to INEC is how the NPC can provide data that will assist us in further enhancing the credibility of the National Register of Voters.
We are happy that today, INEC has the largest biometric register of citizens in Nigeria complete with photographs and fingerprint information for voter authentication.
We have also introduced facial biometric authentication of voters which was successfully piloted in the recent bye-election in Isoko South 1 State Constituency in Delta State.
“In order to make the voters’ register more robust, we have been periodically cleaning it up by removing ineligible persons or multiple registrants from it using a combination of technology i.e. The Automatic Biometric Identification System (ABIS) and information provided by citizens during the display of the register for claims and objections as required by law.
However, we need to do more. At present, technology cannot help us to identify and remove dead persons from the voters’ register”, he stated.
