During Thursday’s session, the House of Representatives passed a resolution urging the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to remove fictitious and deceased persons’ names from the current voter register.
Additionally, the House recommended that INEC conduct public education programs to raise awareness about what renders the voter register spurious with fake and dead names.
The House also suggested that INEC establish a software tool that allows families who have lost their loved ones to notify the commission about the death of a specific Permanent Voters Card (PVC) number and erase such names from the INEC register, polling unit, and Ward.
Moreover, the House proposed that whoever does not vote in two consecutive election cycles should be removed from the INEC register as a non-existent person.
The resolution was based on a motion titled “Urgent Need for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to Clean Up Its System of Dead and Fictitious Registered Voters,” presented at the plenary by Honorable Leke Abejide, who disclosed that INEC had included his deceased father’s name on the register.
He said: “The Independent National Electoral Commission’s register contains millions of dead and non-existent persons
“It was glaring in the last general election as names of the dead were still displayed in the voters’ register including my deceased father who died long ago.
“Millions of fictitious non-existence voters have their names on INEC registered due to multiple registrations by Nigerians with the intention of rigging elections but with the advent of the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) such faceless individuals can no longer vote.”
The lawmakers, while adopting the motion, mandated its Committee on Electoral Matters to ensure compliance with the resolution.