Ahead of the presidential, governorship and parliamentary elections slated for February and March, figures show Lagos with the highest number of would-be voters. Kano follows it.

Ekiti and Bayelsa are credited with the least number of eligible voters in the general election.

The chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this on Wednesday at the presentation of the electronic copy of the 93,469,008 voter register to leaders of political parties in Abuja.

Lagos has the highest number of voters with 7, 060,195, followed by Kano with 5,921,370 and Kaduna with 4,335,208 registered voters. Ekiti has the least registered voters with 987,647, followed by Bayelsa with 1,056,862 and Yobe with 1,485,146 registered voters.

“Consequently, the register of voters for the 2023 general election stands at 93,469,008. Of this cumulative figure, 49,054,162 (52.5 per cent) are male, while 44,414,846 (47.5 per cent) are female. The distribution by age group shows that 37,060,399 (39.65 per cent ) are youth between the ages of 18 and 34; 33,413,591 (35.75 per cent ) are middle-aged persons between the ages of 35 and 49,” the INEC chair revealed.

Mr Yakubu added that 17,700,270 (18.94 per cent ) “are elderly voters between the ages of 50 and 69 while 5,294,748 (5.66 per cent) are senior citizens aged 70 and above.”

In terms of occupational distribution, the register shows that students constitute the largest category with 26,027,481 (27.8 per cent) of all voters, followed by 14,742,554 (15.8 per cent ) farmers/fishermen and 13,006,939 (13.9 per cent) housewives.

The data on disability was not collected for previous registration. However, the cumulative figure of 85,362 persons from the recent CVR indicates that there are 21,150 (24.5 per cent ) persons with albinism, 13,387 (15.7 per cent ) with physical impediment and 8,103 (9.5 per cent) are blind,” said Mr Yakubu.

He stated that the softcopy of the breakdown and analysis would be uploaded to the INEC website and social media platforms.

Fire destroyed goods worth over N40 million at the Potiskum market in Yobe.

Nasiru Mato, the market’s chairman of the traders association, disclosed this on Tuesday.

He said the incident occurred on Sunday at about 8:00 p.m. and lasted for over three hours.

Mr Mato said the fire destroyed over 80 shops filled with bicycles, used clothes and yams.

The chairman said that although the fire’s cause was yet to be determined, it had no links with electricity.

“It has no link with electricity because we usually disconnect the source of electricity in the market during closing hours. But we suspect one of our guards may have lit the fire to stay warm due to the cold weather,” he said.

Mr Mato said the state Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) had visited the market and promised to support those that lost their valuables and appealed to the state government to provide fire engines in the market to forestall future occurrences.

“If there was a fire fighting vehicle attached to this market, the damage would have been minimised. Immediately the fire started, we reached out to firefighters in Potiskum and Nengere. Unfortunately, all their fire engines had broken down,” he said.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has extended the deadline for the collection of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) by one week.

INEC had previously said it would end the PVC collection on 22 January, 2023 having started the process on 12 December, 2022.

But after deliberation at the commission’s headquarters on Thursday, its Commissioner for Voter Education, Festus Okoye, announced a new deadline for the PVC collection.

In a statement he released on the same day, Mr Okoye said the PVC collection now ends on 29 January.

“The Commission is encouraged by the turnout of registered voters and the surge in the number of collected PVCs across the country,” he said.

He said the extension was approved to provide Nigerians with more time to get their PVCs ahead of the general elections coming up in 43 days.

After a week of distributing the PVCs at Local Government Offices, INEC took the distribution exercise to the Registration Areas/Wards from 6 January.

The distribution at the ward level, earlier schedule to end on 15 January, has been extended to continue until 22 January, when the exercise would be taken back to the local government offices.

At the local government office, the exercise continues until 29 January, he added.

Mr Okoye said INEC is impressed by the turnout of Nigerians in collecting their PVCs at the Ward level.

“In some of the states, as many as 100,000 PVCs were collected in the last five days since the devolution to ward level started on Saturday 6th January 2023,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Commission said it is investigating allegations of extortion by officials and “some unscrupulous voters’ trying to circumvent the process at some of the collection centres.

“Those found culpable will face disciplinary action and/or prosecution,” it said.

The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, was on ground in Damaturu, Yobe State for the commissioning of some state-of-the-art construction projects by the IGP Usman Alkali Baba, Amongst the various projects commissioned include a fully furnished ultra-modern Police Hospital complete with an hospital block, administrative block, pharmacy building, a modern accident and emergency centre, as well as a morgue.

Others include a newly constructed two-storey structure to serve as the Yobe State Police Command headquarters fully fitted with furnishings, contemporary information and technology assets, and an elevator and access for persons with physical challenges. Also commissioned is a new block of classrooms, an administrative block, and two hostel blocks for the Police Secondary School in Damaturu, Yobe State.

The President, while expressing his satisfaction with the elegance of the projects, lauded the Inspector-General of Police for his visionary leadership and commitment to better policing services for all members of the country, which has translated into magnificent projects for the Nigeria Police Force all around the country.

The Commissioning event had in attendance the Executive Governors of Yobe and Borno States, Hon. Mai Mala Buni, CON, and Prof. (Engr.), Babagana Umara Zulum, CON, the Senate President, Senator Ahmed Lawan, CON, the Chairman Senate Committee on Police Affairs, Senator Haliru Dauda Jika, Honourable Minister of Police Affairs, Alhaji Mohammed Maigari Dingyadi, Service Chiefs – Chiefs of Army, Navy and Air Staff, Heads of Security Agencies and other distinguished guests.

The Inspector-General of Police urges indigenes and residents of the Yobe state capital to make effective use of the international standard health and educational services of the Nigeria Police Force available to achieve giant strides both nationally and internationally as they cater to both the police and members of the public.

The Assistant Inspector-General of Police in charge of Zone 7, Kayode Egbetokun, has said the police would work more on intelligence gathering towards security for the forthcoming 2023 general elections.

Egbetokun made the revelation during his familiarisation visit with the Federal Capital Territory Police Command on Wednesday.

He noted that police officers are the strategic managers for the provision of adequate security for election.

Egbetokun said, “Aside from being the lead agency in internal security, the NPF is also the lead agency in election security management as stipulated in the relevant sections of the Electoral Act, 2020.

“There is room for improvement; modern policing is intelligence-led, community-based and technology-driven. We must therefore work harder to enhance our intelligence capacity.

“We must improve on visibility policing. The recent deployment of newly passed out recruit constables is a big boost in this regard. We must sustain strategic partnership with other security agencies and other stakeholders.”

He further ordered the FCT Police Command to intensify stop and search operations, while urging the police officers to respect human rights and shun extortion in the course of their duties.

He added, “The FCT administration recently assisted the command with 20 new operational vehicles fitted with communication gadgets we must reciprocate this gesture by discharging our duties professionally, responsibly and scaling up our service delivery.

We must improve traffic control within the FCT. Traffic officers must be on their toes to ensure traffic flows within the FCT. We must reinvigorate stop and search, effectively man black spots and sustain the present tempo in raid of criminal hideouts.

“Scavenging has been banned within the FCT and we must not allow them to continue to operate.”

Speaking to journalists during the AIG’s visit, the FCT Commissioner of Police, Sadiq Abubakar, said the Command had developed and implemented operational strategies to combat crime. He said the development was in compliance with the vision and mission of the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba.

Abubakar said, “The operational policies and strategies employed by the command have led to the arrest of 18 armed robbery suspects and the recovery of 1,159 exhibits, including arms and ammunition of various calibres, illicit drugs and other harmful weapons, and vehicles.

Also, 24 kidnapped victims were rescued by operatives of the command, and they have been reunited with their families.”

Shri Balasubramanian, Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria, on Wednesday said the country would offer 500 scholarships to Nigerians in 2023.

Mr Balasubramanian disclosed this during a courtesy visit to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

The envoy said his working visit to the agency was to promote information and communication exchange between the two countries.

“We will be having a group of Journalists from Nigeria go to India, not on a course but” actually a field visit being organised to expose India,” stated Mr Balasubramanian. “In other words, what India has been doing in the area of politics. We will not be doing it exclusively for Nigeria, but for West Africa, for about 30 people.”

He added, “I am sure that Nigeria, being a part of G20, will be able to get more numbers, so we will be doing it after March and April. I will discuss it with you to get your recommendations also; we do award 500 scholarships every year to Nigerians, 250 of them are on the civilian side.”

The Indian ambassador also mentioned that the scholarship involved other courses that journalists could be interested in, saying, “we work on a calendar basis, and our financial year comes to close in March.”

Mr Balasubramanian added, “So, April to March is our calendar through which we do all these things. Currently, it is two and a half months that are available but come April, it will be the first 250, and we will be happy to continue these things.”

He commended bilateral relations between the two countries to have been excellent and that more would be done to deepen India-Nigeria ties in healthcare delivery further.

The Indian ambassador extolled the volume of trade between both countries, saying that over 135 Indian companies have invested $19 billion in Nigeria since the past four decades of diplomatic relations.

The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) has called for an increase in allowance paid to corps members for election-related duties in the country.

According to NAN, Christy Uba, NYSC’s acting director-general (DG), spoke when she hosted a team from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja on Friday.

The INEC team was led by Mahmood Yakubu, the chairman of the commission.

Speaking on the occasion, Uba said there is a need to review the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between NYSC and INEC in March 2022 ahead of the general election.

The acting NYSC DG said this has become imperative to meet current realities in the country.

“We need to work in our present reality, there is the need to review the allowances paid to the corps members,” she said.

“The chairman should please look at the conditions and ensure some level of improvement as contained in the MoU.”

Uba said the NYSC remains committed to its partnership with INEC to ensure the forthcoming election goes smoothly as planned.

“On the preparation for the 2023 general elections, we have directed state coordinators to encourage corps members to register on the INEC portal, and I believe they have done that,” she said.

“Corps’ welfare and service department is expected to visit states to assure corps members and staff of the commitment of INEC and NYSC, of their safety while on election duties.

“This is to further encourage them, given the situation we have found ourselves. They need to be assured that their security is being taken care of.’’

On his part, the INEC chairman said the commission will continue to place a premium on the security of corps members on election duty.

Yakubu described the role of corps members as the most critical in the election process.

“So, for that reason, we will also extend insurance cover in case of injury or other emergencies to all corps members involved in election duty,” he said.

“Working with the security agencies, we will also extend protection and security to the youth corps members’ lodges when they are deployed to the field on election days.

“This is because we have had some unhappy experiences before, when some hoodlums raided the corps members’ lodges in some places, while they were on election duty.

“So, we will continue to take whatever step that is necessary to protect and guarantee the security and welfare of the corps members.”