Electoral body registers 67 million voters across Nigeria

234Next

21 Feb 2011

Electoral body registers 67 million voters across Nigeria

Officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) registered a total of 67,764,327 million Nigerians during the just concluded national voter registration exercise, the final list released has shown.

The electoral body is presently undertaking a review exercise to ensure that there are no missing data or duplication of registration. Barring any major changes after the review, the figure represents the number of Nigerians expected to cast their votes during April polls across the country. According to the data, states with the highest number of prospective voters include two of Nigeria's most populated states, Lagos and Kano. Lagos leads the pack with a total of 6.2 million registered voters.

It is followed by Kano which has 5.1 million; Kaduna, with 3.5 million; Katsina, with 2.9million; Borno, with 2.7 million; Oyo, with 2.5million; Rivers, with 2.4million and Sokoto, with a total of 2million registered voters.

These figures, released pending the removal of any duplicated registration, were obtained from the INEC voters' return register exclusively obtained by NEXT.

It shows that Bayelsa is the state with the lowest number of voters, with a total of 472, 389 registered prospective voters; followed by Niger state, with 721,478; Ekiti, with 750,753 and the Federal Capital Territory with 886, 323.

The figure shows that the fight for votes is likely to be fierce in high populated northwest and southwest states. Of the populous states, PDP is in power in Kaduna, Oyo, Katsina, Sokoto and Rivers States respectively. The All Nigeria Peoples Party is the ruling party in Borno and Kano States while the Action Congress of Nigeria rules Lagos. The recently established Congress of Progressive Change is however likely to create upset in some states in the northwest.