The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Edo State, on Monday, said that a total of 52, 013 persons registered for the just concluded Continuous Voters Registration (CVR), exercise that took place between the Months of June 2021 and January 2022 in the state.
Of the figure, the Commission disclosed that 32, 465 were invalidated owing to double registrations, were discovered after being subjected to Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).
The Head of Department, Voter Education and Publicity of INEC, Mr Timidi Wariowei, made the disclosure during a Media and Stakeholders Summit, tagged: “Roadmap to Credible, Transparent and Peaceful Election in Edo”, organised by Edo State Council of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
Wariowei added that the figure was one of the least compared to other states where similar CVR was done.
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Wariowei stated further that INEC through its determined efforts to make elections seamless in the state had created more polling units, increasing it from 2,627 to 4,519.
He appealed to Journalists in the state to cooperate with the Commission towards ensuring peaceful and credible elections in the state, just as he advised them to desist from the temptation of announcing election results while on election monitoring duty.
He submitted that journalists could quote a figure being displayed by INEC officials at the polling units, but could not declare any candidates winner, noting that “it is the sole responsibility of INEC to do that.”
Speaking also, the state Commissioner of Police, CP Abutu Yaro, who was represented by the Head of Operations of the Command, James Chu, said citizens of the state must check their excesses as they planned towards the forthcoming elections, adding that “the country belongs us and thus must not set it on fire by their actions.”
Speaking earlier, the Edo State Chairman of the NUJ, Festus Alenkhe, urged journalists to be guided by the Electoral Acts and avoid any acts that could jeopardise the country.
He also called on the law enforcement agencies to see journalists as partners in progress and should not brutalise them while doing their job as “the union has an internal mechanism in handling any journalists that is found wanting.”
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52,013 registered for CVR in Edo ― NEC
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