We’ve registered over 10m new voters – INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said it has registered over 10 million new voters in the course of the continuous voter registration exercise scheduled to end next month.
This was revealed Saturday by the INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, at a bi-annual retreat of State House journalists with the theme ‘covering electioneering campaign’ which held at Epe Resort, Lagos state.
Represented by the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of INEC in Lagos, Samuel Olumekun, Yakubu said “as at 13th July 2018, a total number of 10,292,647 (5,620,401 males, 4,672,246 females) prospective voters had registered.” Yakubu, however, said the commission still had a large number of uncollected Permanent Voter Cards in their various offices and called on members of the press corps “to use your networks and platforms to publicise this information and encourage the owners to come and pick them.” Yakubu said political activities were already gathering momentum in the country and that very soon the electioneering campaigns would commence.
He said he already came up with the timetable of activities for the 2019 general elections, indicating that the commencement of campaigns by political parties for presidential and National Assembly, and for governorship and State House Assembly elections are slated for November 18, and December 1 respectively.
He called on the media to ensure accurate coverage of political activities, noting that all over the world, the media are known as the “cornerstone of democracy” because they play critical roles in proper functioning of democracy.
He said in facilitating the full participation of the citizenry in democratic elections, the media are specifically saddled with the responsibility of educating voters on how to exercise their democratic rights.
He also said it is the duty of the media to provide platforms for political parties and candidates to communicate their messages to the electorate; as well as “providing a platform for public feedback, concerns, opinions and needs to the political parties and candidates, the Election Management Body (EMBs), government, and others.” The INEC chairman advised the media that as they carry out their duties they should provide information in a manner devoid of inflammatory language, and help to prevent election-related violence.