2023: CUPP Welcomes INEC’s Reassurance to Clean up Voter Register
Udora Orizu in Abuja
The Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) has described as a welcomed development, the assurance by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that it will invalidate every ineligible registrants during the clean-up of register with a comprehensive Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS).
The opposition parties had on Wednesday alleged that there are moves to use a secret Court action to stop the use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machine in the upcoming 2023 general election.
Reacting on Thursday, the electoral body while maintaining that since the end of the continuous voter registration exercise, no fresh registrant was added or subtracted from the voters’ register, said the Commission was conducting a comprehensive Automated Biometric Identification System cleanup of the registration data by scrutinising every record.
CUPP in a statement by its spokesman, Ikenga Ugochinyere on Friday, said that the assurance by the commission to flush out the fake names would further help to douse the tension in some states where this unprecedented manipulations were already uncovered.
The coalition commended the bold steps already taken by the commission to delete so far over 3,000 fake names in the voter register from Oru east local government area in Imo state.
CUPP added that their investigation was not to witch-hunt any person or group, rather it’s a patriotic move to further alert INEC and Nigerians of alleged plot by some undemocratic forces to compromise 2023 election.
The statement read in part, “And for the avoidance of doubt, the exposed discrepancies by opposition parties in Voter register in 22 APC controlled states was 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 particularly commend the commission for taking the necessary steps to address this monumental electoral fraud which in our mind were perpetuated by those working to compromise the 2023 election. INEC by alluding to the exposed discrepancies for instance on Imo state has further vindicated the opposition parties which had on Wednesday alerted Nigerians to the plot by APC controlled states to rig the 2024 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.”
