Multiple registration: INEC prosecutes 200,000 offenders


Director, Public Affairs of the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) ,Emmanuel Lumenger, yesterday revealed that the commission was currently prosecuting 200,000 alleged multiple registration offenders across the country in court.

While noting that the commission detected 870,000 alleged multiple registration offenders in the last electronic voter’s registration exercise , Lumenger admitted that the INEC was over –stretched in the litigation exercise due to insufficient counsels. Lumenger spoke in Yenagoa yesterday while briefing journalists on the on-going voter registration exercise ahead of the governorship election scheduled for February 11 next year in the state.

He said he could not account for the total number of political parties fielding candidates for the gubernatorial poll, arguing that it was not to make the list public. The INEC official further said the commission was advocating for an Electoral Offenders Commission (EOC) to enable it prosecute electoral offenders with speedy dispensation. He noted that the commission was saddled with the task of producing a credible voter’s register that would not be manipulated by desperate politicians in the state.

Lumenger warned that any staff of the commission found wanting in the registration exercise and election in the state would be decisively dealt with within the ambits of the law. The official said the commission might extend the period of registration to accommodate more eligible voters in the state, stressing that the decision would be a policy matter. According to him, INEC had produced enough handbills and posters to sensitise voters in next year’s election, adding that the display of voter’s register was a critical period to the commission. The voter’s registration which commenced across the 105 electoral wards in the state on December 12 will end on December 19.
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