We shall abide with court’s order on continuous voter’s registration – INEC
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Tuesday, said it will comply with the ruling of a Federal High Court in Abuja on the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR).
Justice Mobolaji Olajuwon of the Federal High Court in Abuja had stopped INEC from going ahead with its decision to end the CVR exercise on June 30, as scheduled.
However, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Commissioner on Information and Voter Education, Festus Okoye, on Channels Television’s “Politics Today”, on Tuesday, noted that the commission is a constitutional body, “and we are under a constitutional obligation to give effect to judgments and orders of properly constituted courts of law, and we are going to give effect to the order made by the Federal High Court.”
Okoye noted that the CVR exercise had been going on for the past year and that INEC would on the 29th day of June convince the court on the adjourned date on why the exercise should be discontinued for now.
According to him, the court has asked INEC to come back on 29 June and explain its position.
“We are going to go back to the court on that 29th day of June to explain our position and then allow the rest of the issues to be determined by the court.
“The continuous voter registration has been ongoing for one year. We started the online registration on the 28th day of June 2021 and then started the physical registration in July 2021 so the online has been going on for one year,” he said.
Okoye noted that there were days when the INEC officers would register only one person for a whole day, adding that “for each day, our registration officers spend registering voters, it also has financial implications. This is not a fresh registration, it is only meant for persons who have not registered before and those who have attained the age of 18.”
“These are the ones that are supposed to engage in this continuous voter registration excercise. Persons who seek to do transfer, whose PVCs have damaged are not obligated to register again,” he added.