The House of Representatives yesterday said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has agreed to extend the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise.
The chair, House Committee on Electoral Matters, Aisha Dukku, disclosed this yesterday during plenary while responding to a point of order raised by the Minority Leader, Ndudi Elumelu.
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INEC had earlier set June 30 as the deadline for the exercise nationwide but there had been calls for an extension following the upsurge in the turnout of Nigerians seeking to obtain their PVCs ahead of the 2023 elections.
The house had, last Wednesday, asked INEC to extend the deadline for CVR by 60 days.
Aisha told the house that her committee had met with the INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, who agreed to comply with the house resolution to extend CVR registration beyond the June 30 deadline.
“Mr Speaker, as I earlier told you, we met with the INEC chairman yesterday (Tuesday) based on the referral to our committee. We thought it was urgent, so we invited INEC, and Professor Yakubu Mahmood was with us on Wednesday afternoon.
“Part of what we agreed to was that he has already agreed to extend but for the court injunction; he is to appear on June 29,” she said.
However, Dukku told reporters after the plenary that Yakubu said it would not be possible for INEC to extend to the days the house requested but that they would go back and look at how best they can be able to increase the days for registration.
“In essence, INEC would inform Nigerians as to how many days they will be able to extend the registration in view of other milestones that they have to achieve,” she said.
When contacted, Mr Rotimi Lawrence Oyekanmi, the Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to INEC chairman, said: “The commission has not announced any extension of the CVR deadline.”
However, a senior official of the commission, who pleaded not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, said it is practically impossible to extend the June 30 deadline.
According to the official, INEC planned to appeal the court order restraining it from closing the CVR portal on June 30.
“This has implications on the timetable and schedules of the 2023 general elections. Since the commission must print the PVCs of those that registered, it means the dates for the elections must be shifted too,” the official said.
By Itodo Daniel Sule & Abbas Jimoh
