Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has refuted social media reports that it had extended the deadline for voters’ registration earlier fixed for June 30 to August 31.
INEC said that the media report was false and never emanated from the Commission.
Mr Rotimi Oyekanmi, the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, said on Monday that there was no iota of truth in the said report, and urged members of the public to disregard it.
He maintained that the June 30 deadline remained sacrosanct.
According to him, “the deadline for the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) is still 30th June. The online pre-registration service closed since 30th May.
“What the Commission has done to respond to the surge in numbers of those who want to register, is to deploy more INEC Voter Enrollment Devices (IVEDs) to areas where the pressure is highest.
“These areas are all the states in the South-East region, Kano, Lagos and the FCT.”
INEC, had last week, promised to consider extension of the deadline following the clamour by many Nigerians as a result of the increasing number of new registrants particularly in the South-East and Lagos.South-East still has the least number of registered voters but the large turn of of eligible voters at the registration centres in the last few weeks after the emergence of Peter Obi as the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, indicates that the zone may overtake some others before the deadline.
