INEC says IDPs will vote in 2019 general elections

The chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has assured internally displayed persons (IDPs) that they'll not be disenfranchised in the 2019 general elections.

While speaking at the Validation Conference on the Framework for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) Voting in Abuja on Wednesday, December 12, 2018, he said the elections will be inclusive and participatory for all eligible voters.

According to the INEC boss, IDPs will be empowered to vote in as many as 15 states where many have been displaced from their homes for different reasons.

"At the moment we are looking at about fifteen States and for where for varieties of reasons, citizens are not living in places where they are domiciled," he said.

Nigeria is home to over 2 million displaced people scattered in government-run IDP camps, with many of them victims of the nine-year insurgency of terrorist group, Boko Haram, in the northeast. 

Yakubu also noted that others are displaced due to clashes between farmers and herders in the northcentral region, banditry in the northwest, as well as others affected by environmental factors and natural disasters.

Yakubu disclosed at Wednesday's conference that the commission has held meetings with Resident Electoral Commissioners on validating the document for IDPs voting before the elections.

INEC will conduct Nigeria's presidential and national assembly elections on February 16, 2019. Governorship and State House of Assembly elections will be held on March 2, 2019.