By Hosea parah, Abuja

The Independent National Electoral Commission on Wednesday disclosed that 23 of its registration officers are currently facing disciplinary actions for their involvement in illegal Continuous Voters’ Registration.

The INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this in his remark at the fourth quarterly consultative meeting with leaders of political parties in Abuja.
Yakubu said the commission deployed thousands of its staff to carry out thorough CVR, however few failed to comply.

The INEC chairman also noted that the commission would continue to protect the voters’ register hence the need to discipline erring staff.

He said, “The commission deployed thousands of diligent staff for the CVR exercise and the vast majority of them discharged their duties conscientiously. Unfortunately, a few of them did not. The fictitious registrations were carried out by some of our registration officers involved in the field exercise and could easily be traced. Each registration machine is operated using an access code tied to a dedicated e-mail assigned to a staff.

“There is therefore an audit trail that gives the total number of persons registered by each official involved in the registration exercise. In some case, some of them made as many as 40 attempts or more to register one fake voter.

“As a result, the commission has so far identified 23 registration officers involved in this unethical conduct and disciplinary action has commenced.
“We shall continue to protect the integrity of our voters’ register. It is pivotal to credible elections. It is also a national asset and easily the largest database of citizens in Africa and one of the largest in the world.”

Yakubu added that soon, the commission would notify Nigerians of the detailed plan to ensure seamless collections of the PVCs, noting that the commission is working hard to ensure the completion of printing of remaining PVCs for new voters.

He said, “The commission is also working hard to ensure the completion of printing of remaining PVCs for new voters as well as those that applied to transfer or the replacement of their lost or damaged cards.

“In the coming days, we will also inform Nigerians of the detailed plan to ensure a seamless collection of the PVCs. We are aware that Nigerians expect an improvement in the procedure for PVC collection.

“Since the end of the CVR in July this year, we have been working to ensure that citizens have a pleasant experience when they come to collect their cards.”