A new voter registration portal has surfaced online prompting people to flood the site to register.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has distanced itself from the portal and urged Nigerians to avoid unnecessary desperation to enrol for the Permanent Voters Card (PVC).
The commission noted that a viral website accepting registration from citizens is fake and not from them.
Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) portal closed on Sunday, 31st July after the extended date had elapsed. INEC also issued a statement insisting that it does not plans to extend the deadline further.
Over 12 million new applications were reportedly recorded in the CVR exercise.
However, hours after the closure of the portal for registration, the fake online website reportedly surfaced urging Nigerians to quickly enrol for their PVC in order not to miss out in the 2023 general election.
The INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee Mr Festus Okoye stated categorically on Monday that the viral website is fake.
The website creators whom Okoye had labelled as scammers are said to have claimed that the federal government approved individual PVC registration online to avoid the unnecessary crowd at the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) centres.
In Okoye’s words, “The Commission states unequivocally that the site is not linked to the commission and the link/portal is spurious and from a dubious source.”
He explained further that INEC was the only body constitutionally and legally mandated to conduct the registration of persons qualified to vote in any election in Nigeria and to update and revise the register when the need arose.
The commission is solely responsible for organising, undertaking, and supervising national elections in the country and does not share this responsibility with anybody or organisation.
“Members of the public are strongly advised not to succumb to the antics of online scammers and should avoid such fake sites.
“The commission has concluded the Continuous Voter Registration nationwide and does not need to open an additional site or portal for the purposes of registration of voters,” Okoye added.
The caveat issued by INEC:
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