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SERAP’s threat of lawsuit over incomplete voter registration irrational – INEC

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The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Sunday described the threat by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) to file a lawsuit in court over incomplete voter registration as irrational and inconsequential.

SERAP had in a letter signed by its Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, on Saturday, accused the commission of stopping over seven million Nigerians who registered online from completing the process.

The organization described the development as a gross violation of the citizens’ human rights and charged the commission to address the matter or face legal action.

The INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, who reacted to the SERAP’s threat in a Channels Television’s programme, Sunday Politics, said the organization does not understand the commission’s procedures.

READ ALSO: SERAP threatens to sue INEC over voters’ registration, shutting out 7m eligible voters

Okoye, therefore, charged SERAP to approach the commission for adequate information on its operations.

He said: “This is not the first time SERAP will take the 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 seek basic knowledge from the Commission.

“The online registration was the initiative of the Commission to ease the exercise. Those disenfranchised are in the Diaspora. So SERAP threatening to charge the Commission to court means they lack necessary information about the registration process.”

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