The Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) guarantee that it will conduct a thorough clean-up of the voter register in advance of the general elections in 2023 has been praised by the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP).
The coalition also acknowledged the electoral commission’s determination to pursue legal action against individuals implicated in the alleged fabrication of the voter register in a statement released by its spokesman on Friday, Ikenga Ugochinyere.
It said that INEC’s pledge to remove fictitious names from the voter list will further ease tension in several states where the alleged manipulations occurred.
At a press conference on Wednesday in Abuja, Ugochinyere expressed concern about alleged false registration and tasked INEC with assuring Nigerians that it was prepared to hold credible elections in 2023.
The coalition noted that it “also welcomes the assurance by INEC to investigate the reported secrete move by some undemocratic elements to force the commission to dump the use of the widely accepted Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) machine in the 2023 election.
” And for the avoidance of doubt, the exposed discrepancies by opposition parties in Voter register in 22 APC controlled states were not to witch-hunt any person or group of persons ,but a patriotic move by CUPP to further alert INEC and indeed Nigerians of desperate plot by some undemocratic forces to compromise 2023 election.”
“We are happy that the commission admitted some of the discrepancies we had earlier raised in the register, but we want to commend the commission for taking the necessary steps to address this monumental electoral fraud which, in our mind, was perpetuated by those working to compromise the 2023 election.
“As opposition parties we await the final cleaned list by the commission, and this is the only way to douse the tension already generated by this fraud“