INEC has dissociated itself from a website urging Nigerians to enrol for PVC.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has dissociated itself from a fake website, which is being used to urge Nigerians to enroll for their Permanent Voters Card (PVC). The National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Mr. Festus Okoye said this in a statement in Abuja on August 1st, 2022. He described the website as fake. “Barely 24 hours after the suspension of voter registration, INEC’s attention has been drawn to an online site urging Nigerians to enroll for voter card (PVC) registration,” Okoye said.
Mr. Okoye revealed that the scammers claimed that the Federal Government has approved individual PVC registration online to avoid unnecessary crowd at the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) centers. “The commission states unequivocally that the site is not linked to the commission and it is spurious and from a dubious source,” he said. Okoye maintained that INEC was the only body constitutionally and legally mandated to conduct the registration of persons qualified to vote in any election in Nigeria and to update and revise the register as needed or when due.
Mr. Okoye reiterates the functions of the commission.
He said, “The commission is solely responsible for organizing, undertaking, and supervising national elections in the country and does not share this responsibility with anybody or any organization. Members of the public are strongly advised not to succumb to the antics of online scammers and should avoid such fake sites. The commission has concluded the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) nationwide and does not need to open an additional site or portal for the purpose of registration of voters.”
The CVR included a series of procedures which both new and old eligible voters have to undergo to be able to vote for the forthcoming general elections in 2023. They include: pre-enrolment exercises, voter validation, and voter transfer from one polling unit to another. All procedures take place on INEC’s official website. The pre-enrolment exercise enables new voters to register on INEC’s website and supply basic information so that biometric enrolment at NIMC and INEC centers can be seamless.
PVC pre-enrolment exercise may have given credence to the fake site.
This pre-enrolment procedure may have opened up a loophole for scammers to bank on and harvest user data for fraud, impersonation, and cybercrime. Many voters in Nigeria have not been properly educated on the proper procedure of registration. In fact, majority of these voters may not know how the pre-enrolment works via INEC’s official website. Even the supposedly educated young voters may not totally know how the procedures work because it may be “technical” to them.
What these scammers do is open fake websites, find and prey on the ignorance or lack of adequate information of these unsuspecting voters. If they can believe that one has to register online before completing the registration at an INEC center, then they can also believe that the process has been moved entirely online. It is as easy as giving the excuse that these scammers are said to have given. The registration has been moved online to avoid the hassles of waking up early and waiting at these centers.
INEC’s official website also handles voter validation and transfer.
Apart from the pre-enrolment exercise, INEC’s official website is also equipped to handle voter information validation and transfer. Voter validation is to ensure that information such as residential address, email address, polling unit, etc. are correct. On the other hand, voter transfer is to ensure that voters who may have moved away from one city to another, or from one state to another, can transfer their information to another polling unit near them. This is necessary so that they do not have to travel inter-city or interstate in order to vote.
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Good they detected this early enough and cleared the air. Perpetrators of this act should be brought to book as well.
Inec should do everything possible to ensure the websites they are using is not fake. They should ensure they are reliable enough to conduct a free and fair election and also help to register citizens. We really need to vote for the right set of people this time around. We should do the right thing as fast as possible.
It is good it was detect fast so something should be done to afford all is fake website been active because we want a free and fair election choose people will choose whoever they want. So INEC should be on alert in other to stop anything that will spoil or cheating in the election
We all needs to be conscientious and be fully aware of the website we will visit and avoid phishing sites that might be used to access and harvest our information illegally or used to scam us.
Just imagine for a fake portal to be created on behalf of INEC why just to register fake voters why can’t we be true to ourselves for once, Nigeria I hail thee.
This definitely another means to rig the upcoming election. Thank God the INEC officials were quick to raise alarm, so everyone should stay alert and not fall victim
The dubious people will always find way to do their unscrupulous job.INEC should do more in putting security on their site so that they wouldn’t be able to have access and also track the perpetrators and punish them accordingly.
As of now, I can say that INEC is doing everything possible to assure that the upcoming election will be free, fair, and transparent. However, in order to avoid the election from being tampered with, the people must also cooperate with them, support them, be wary of sites like this, and report any suspicious activity to the relevant authority.
It is a good thing INEC officials discovered this early…. They need to put on more performances like this to ensure us they are reliable enough to conduct a free and fair election.
Good One from INEC to decover those fake portals, but INEC should improve more, they service is too poor for us. They should tell us the real number of register PVC From each state.
These scammers are at it again. This is a method they want to steal our vote. Someone is busy reaping people’s data to use for rigging.
INEC had been doing a good job so far, it was evident in the election of osun state. It will be good if they can continue exposing this scammers that way we will have a free and fair election.
It is good as Inec quickly came out to say they are not involved with this fake scheme do more people won’t fall for it.
The general public is urged in the strongest possible terms not to fall for the tricks played by internet con artists and to steer clear of sites like these.
Since selling of votes doesn’t work again, desperate politicians are now devising other means to manipulate votes. It will not work
The fact that many voters in Nigeria have not received adequate education on the correct process of registering to vote explains why they will not detect the phoney website as being fraudulent.
People should avoid this fake pages And also avoiding putting out sensitive informations On sites that have not been verified
It is good that they put out the disclaimer if not people will keep falling for the scam and they will think it’s Inec.
People need to be smart about whatever they are doing because you can’t be putting your information on anyhow site, you don’t know what they can do with it.
Even the ostensibly well-educated young voters might not have a complete understanding of how the procedures function since they might find it too “technical.”
Good job from inec to quickly rebuff this evil act, people needs to be careful and check sites well before they input any data so they won’t be scammed
INEC should lecture people on things like this so people won’t fall for it next time because people needs serious education on the registration process
Nigeria today is short of modern technology. INEC offices are still using pen and paper for citizens registrations in various states. We as a nation should be using modern technology for this kind of registration and not paper and pen. INEC should be ashamed of this technique being used because this practices always leads to fraudulent vote counts. The lack of technology being used by INEC is the reason a duming website was able to setup to distract the citizens.