The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Monday reacted to the ruling of the Federal High Court, Abuja, on voter’s registration ahead of the 2023 general elections.
Justice Mobolaji Olajuwon had earlier on Monday stopped the INEC from ending the exercise on June 30.
The judge gave the order while ruling on an ex parte motion filed by Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP)
INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman of Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, on Monday while on Channels TV said voters registration cannot continue forever.
According to the INEC official, the CVR exercise has been ongoing for about a year as the online pre-registration and physical registration began in June and July 2021 respectively.
He said: “This registration is meant for persons who have never registered before and those who have reached 18 years.
“Those whose PVCs are damaged or lost or those seeking correction regarding their details are not obligated to register again.
” I think this clarification is needed because people who registered before still go to registration centres again.
Although he did not specifically state whether or not the electoral umpire would go ahead with its initial plan to stop the exercise, the INEC official said the commission would continue to obey the orders of the court.
“The commission is a constitutional body, and we are under a constitutional obligation to give effect to judgements and orders of properly constituted courts of law, and we are going to give effect to the order made by the Federal High Court,
“Having said this, the commission will go before the Federal High Court on June 29 to explain all of this position. It will be a futile exercise to do continuous voter registration ad infinitum.
” At the end of the day, we will not be in the position to display register for claims and objections and double and multiple registrations and make available Permanent Voters cards of all those registered.
“These are all the things we need to do in relation to the registration exercise
“So the cut-off period of 90 days does not presuppose to let everything stop before that specified date.
” There are varieties of things to do before that period in order to get our voter’s register ready.
“We recognise that it’s the constitutional right of the people to register, we also recognise the fact it adds value to our electoral process to have as many Nigerians registered. But we can’t do CVR ad infinitum.”
While INEC is expected to appear before Justice Olajuwon, the suit was adjourned till June 29 for the hearing of the motion on notice for interlocutory injunction.
Despite the decision to give effect to the order of the court, Okoye insisted that INEC would convince the court on the adjourned date on why the exercise should be discontinued for now.
“The court has asked the Independent National Electoral Commission to come back on the 29th day of 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,” he maintained.
