The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Wednesday, finally released the list of voters from each state and FCT Abuja that will participate in the 2023 general election.
According to the INEC, 93,469,008 registered Nigerians are eligible to vote in the forthcoming elections.
The INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu disclosed this on Wednesday at a meeting with political parties at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja.
At the meeting, Yakubu presented the voters’ register to the political parties in accordance with the electoral act.
According to Yakubu who analysed the register reveals that Lagos, Kano, Kaduna, Rivers, Katsina and Oyo states have the highest number of registered voters while Ekiti State least registered voters.
He said Lagos leads with 7,060,195 voters, followed by Kano with 5,921,370, and Kaduna with 4,335,208.
By gender distribution, the number of male voters stands at 49,054,162, while female voters stand at 44,414,846.
Also, youths aged 18 to 34 make up the majority by age with a figure of 37,060,399, representing 39.66 per cent of the voters.
According to occupation, students lead with 26,027,481 voters.
For the age group, registered youths (18-34) were 37,060,399; Middle aged (35-49) 33,413,591; Elderly (50-69), 17,700,270; old (70+) 5,294,748.
The INEC chairman also said substantial quantities of sensitive and non-sensitive materials have been deployed to various locations across the country in preparation for the general election.
“The last batch of the bimodal voter accreditation system (BVAS) has been received, while the ongoing configuration of the critical technology in readiness for elections will soon be completed,” he said.
“In the last two days, we commenced the airlifting of other sensitive materials to states across the country.
“Already, some of the materials for 17 states in three geo-political zones have been delivered.
“Furthermore, 13,868,441 permanent voter cards (PVCs) have been printed, delivered to states, and are being collected by citizens as new voters or by existing voters who applied for transfer or replacement of cards as provided by law.”
According to the figures released by the commission, the North-West geopolitical zone has the highest number of registered voters with 22,255,562.
As of the 2019 elections, the North-West had 20.15m voters. However, the latest report released by INEC showed that over 2m new voters registered during the recently concluded continuous voter registration.
The South-West, which in 2019 had 16,292,212 registered voters, now has 17,958,966, having added 1,666,754 new registered voters.
The North-Central, which had 13,366,070 registered voters in 2019, now has 15,363,731.
The electoral body figures also show that the South-South has 14,440,714 registered voters. The region boasted 12,841,279 registered voters in 2019.
On the other hand, the Northeast currently has 12,542,429 up from 11,289, 293 voters it had in 2019 while the South-East has 10,907,606 up from 10,057,130 registered voters it had in 2019.
Further breakdown by states showed that Lagos has the highest number of registered voters followed by Kano and Kaduna.
Newsflash Nigeria breakdown by each state and FCT Abuja and arranged with the highest number of registered voters:
| S/N | STATE | REGISTERED VOTERS |
| 1 | LAGOS | 7,060,195 |
| 2 | KANO | 5,921,370 |
| 3 | KADUNA | 4,335,208 |
| 4 | RIVERS | 3,537,190 |
| 5 | KATSINA | 3,516,719 |
| 6 | OYO | 3,276,675 |
| 7 | DELTA | 3,221,697 |
| 8 | PLATEAU | 2,789,528 |
| 9 | BENUE | 2,777,727 |
| 10 | BAUCHI | 2,749,268 |
| 11 | NIGER | 2,698,344 |
| 12 | OGUN | 2,688,305 |
| 13 | ANAMBRA | 2,656,437 |
| 14 | BORNO | 2,513,281 |
| 15 | EDO | 2,501,081 |
| 16 | IMO | 2,419,922 |
| 17 | AKWA-IBOM | 2,357,418 |
| 18 | JIGAWA | 2,351,298 |
| 19 | ADAMAWA | 2,196,566 |
| 20 | SOKOTO | 2,172,056 |
| 21 | ABIA | 2,120,808 |
| 22 | ENUGU | 2,112,793 |
| 23 | KEBBI | 2,032,041 |
| 24 | TARABA | 2,022,374 |
| 25 | ONDO | 1,991,344 |
| 26 | OSUN | 1,954,800 |
| 27 | KOGI | 1,932,654 |
| 28 | ZAMFARA | 1,926,870 |
| 29 | NASARAWA | 1,899,244 |
| 30 | CROSS RIVER | 1,766,466 |
| 31 | KWARA | 1,695,927 |
| 32 | EBONYI | 1,597,646 |
| 33 | GOMBE | 1,575,794 |
| 34 | FCT ABUJA | 1,570,307 |
| 35 | YOBE | 1,485,146 |
| 36 | BAYELSA | 1,056,862 |
| 37 | EKITI | 987,647 |
The INEC chairman assured Nigerians that the commission was not contemplating postponing the general elections.
Yakubu also stated that the timetable for the election had not changed, assuring that the elections would hold as scheduled.
He stated, “Following the display of the voter register nationwide and the conclusion of claims and objections by citizens, a new national register of voters has been compiled.
“In short, at no time in the recent history of the commission has so much of the forward planning and implementation been accomplished 44 days ahead of a general election.
“Therefore, the commission is not contemplating any adjustment to the election timetable, let alone the postponement of the general elections.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the presidential and National Assembly elections will hold on Saturday 25th February 2023 while governorship and state assembly elections will hold two weeks later on Saturday, 11th March 2023.
“The repeated assurance by the security agencies for the adequate protection of our personnel, materials and processes also reinforces our determination to proceed. The 2023 general elections will hold as scheduled. Any report to the contrary is not the official position of the commission.
“As a further affirmation of the commission’s readiness to conduct the 2023 general elections as scheduled, the final register of voters has been compiled. You would recall that for the 2019 general elections, Nigeria had a voter population of 84,004,084.
“After the cleaning-up of the data from the last continuous voter registration exercise (June 2021 – July 2022), 9,518,188 new voters were added to the previous register resulting in the preliminary register of 93,522,272, which was presented to Nigerians for claims and objections as required by law.
“Consequently, the register of voters for the 2023 general election stands at 93,469,008.’’
He said the soft copy of the complete register would be presented to each political party, adding that it was organised by state, local government, ward and polling units.
The soft copy of the breakdown and analysis would be uploaded to the INEC website and social media platforms shortly, Yakubu explained.
