Following the suspension of voter registration, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has revealed an online website asking the Nigerian populace to enrol for a permanent voters card (PVC).
The fake site claimed that the Federal Government has ratified individual registration online to avoid needless crowds in the “NIMC” centres.
INEC, however, in a statement by the Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, on Monday, disassociated itself from the phony site.
The statement partly read, “The Commission states unequivocally that the site is not linked to the Commission and the link/portal is spurious and from a dubious source.
“The Independent National Electoral Commission is the only body constitutionally and legally mandated to conduct the registration of persons qualified to vote in any election in Nigeria and to update and revise the register when the need arises.
“The Commission is solely responsible for organizing, undertaking, and supervising national elections in the country and does not share this responsibility with anybody or organization.
“Members of the public are strongly advised not to succumb to the antics of online scammers and should avoid such fake sites.
“The Commission has concluded the Continuous Voter Registration exercise nationwide and does not need to open an additional site or portal for the purposes of registration of voters.”
Earlier, the country’s electoral umpire had disclosed that the latest new registrants who completed their voter registration on Sunday are 12 million people.
According to data published by the commission, the number of persons who have completed their registration is 12,298,944 as of 7 am on August 1.
Of this figure,3,444,378 started their registration online, while 8,854,566 carried out their registration physically.
It revealed that Lagos state topped the number of completed registrations with 585,629, followed by Kano with 569,103, and Delta with 523,517. By zone, the north-west led with 2,514,273, followed by the south-south with 2,458,095, and the north-central with 2,314,368.
The south-west accounted for 2,039,982 registrants; north-east accounts for 1,531,070; and south-east amounted for the lowest with 1,441,156.
According to INEC, youths aged between 18 and 35 constituted the highest number of completed registrations with a total of 8,784,677, while by occupation, students accounted for the greater number of registrants with 4,501,595.
The commission’s data also showed that by gender distribution, the number of female applicants summed up to 6,224,866, while that of males is 6,074,078.
Vanguard