CVR: Benue communities give INEC 21-day to register 120,000 IDPs

Six communities in Guma LGA of Benue State have threatened legal action against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) if it failed within 21 days to register about 120,000 allegedly disenfranchised Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in camps. The communities’ grievances were contained in a petition signed on their behalf by a community leader and a […]

Six communities in Guma LGA of Benue State have threatened legal action against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) if it failed within 21 days to register about 120,000 allegedly disenfranchised Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in camps.

The communities’ grievances were contained in a petition signed on their behalf by a community leader and a former Commissioner for Lands and Survey in Benue State, John Tondu.

“Now, the INEC is conducting another voters’ registration for purposes of the 2023 general elections, and once again persons eligible for registration as voters but who currently reside in the IDP camps are being excluded from the process as no special arrangement whatsoever has been made to ensure their registration as voters and the inclusion of their names in the updated voters’ register.

“Facilities to enable online registration are non-existent in the IDP camps at the moment. Even if such facilities were to be made available, it is a known fact that the level of illiteracy, including computer illiteracy, is very high in Nigeria.

“It could be safely estimated that 75% to 80% of those in the IDP camps in Benue State are illiterates who would find it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to manipulate smartphones or computers in order to fill online soft-copies of the requisite forms to initiate or conclude their voters’ registration process.

“In the light of the foregoing, I call on INEC to make immediate special arrangements to take the ongoing continuous voters’ registration exercise to all the IDP camps hosting Nigerian citizens from Uvir, Mbadwem, Mbabai, Mbayer-Yandev, Mbawa, and Nyiev council wards of Guma LGA of Benue State,” he said.