The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced the extension of the continuous voters registration which was scheduled to end on June 30.
The commission has taken a U-turn from it’s initial intentions and have pulled the plug on the idea.
Prof Mahmood Yakubu, Chairman of the commission, announced a continuation of the during the Youth Vote Count concert at the Old Parade Ground, Abuja, on Saturday.
Yakubu said, “The youths want to know when the registration will end. I want to assure you on behalf of the commission that the registration won’t end on June 30 for as long as we have people trying to register, we will continue to register you.
“In the last five days, we have registered over 14,000 Nigerians in this place alone. We have about 50 voter registration machines. For as long as people have been trying to register to obtain your PVC, we will continue to register you and we will continue to make sure that you get your PVC.”
We had earlier reported that a Federal High Court in Abuja presided by Justice Mobolaji Olajuwon, had stopped INEC from ending the ongoing voter registration exercise.
The court on Monday granted an order of interim injunction restraining INEC from ending the registration process on the proposed date.
The court granted the order after hearing an ex parte motion by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and 185 concerned Nigerians.
SERAP and the 185 other plaintiffs had asked the court to restrain INEC from ending the voters registration process after the commission had extended the party primaries by six days, and believed that the commission can do the same for the people who have not registered for their voters card yet.
In the suit FHC/L/CS/1034/2022 which was filed against INEC at the Federal High Court, Lagos and transferred to Abuja, SERAP asked the court to declare the voter registration deadline as illegal and unconstitutional.
The group asked the court to “declare unconstitutional, illegal, and incompatible with international standards the failure of the electoral body to extend the deadline for voter registration to allow eligible Nigerians to exercise their rights”.
