The Independent National Electoral Commission -INEC, on Sunday, 14 August 2022 stated that the threat by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project -SERAP, to take the commission to court over the incomplete voter registration was irrational and inconsequential.
SERAP had in a letter signed by its Deputy Director, Mr. Kolawole Oluwadare, on Saturday, accused the electoral commission of halting more than seven million Nigerians who registered online from completing their voter registration process. The organization had described the development as a huge violation of the human rights of citizens in Nigeria and has asked the commission to look into the matter or face legal action.
Festus Okoye, who is currently the INEC National Commissioner and Chairman for Information and Voter Education Committee reacted to the threat via a Channels Television’s program titled: Sunday Politics. Okoye had declared that the organization did not understand the commission’s procedures.
Okoye then charged SERAP to approach the commission for enough information on its operations.
Okoye had said: “This is not the first time SERAP will take the electoral commission to court. In reading the Electoral Act in the ordinary sense of it, this step is irrational. They don’t understand the processes and procedures of the Commission at all. The rational thing to do in cases like this is to find basic knowledge from the Commission.
“The online registration was the initiative of the Commission to ease the stress exercise. Those disenfranchised are in the Diaspora. So SERAP threatening to charge the Commission to court means they lack the necessary information about the registration process.”
