BY NONYELUM JULIET
Kaduna
The Yoruba Youth Council (YYC) has cautioned political parties against raising unfounded allegations that could undermine the credibility of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and disrupt preparations for the forthcoming governorship election in Osun State.
The group was reacting to criticisms by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the African Democratic Congress (ADC) over figures released by INEC in its recent nationwide pre-registration exercise, where Osun State recorded 393,269 pre-registrations—the highest in the country.
While the two parties had alleged that the figures were unrealistic and possibly fraudulent, INEC, through a statement by its chairman’s spokesman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, dismissed the claims, insisting that the numbers were consistent with data from its 2021 online registration exercise.
YYC, in a statement signed by its spokesman, Saheed Adeola, and quoting its National President, Comrade Eric, said the alarm raised by the PDP and ADC was needless.
“The figures for Osun State are not unusual. In the 2022 governorship election in Osun, PDP defeated the APC. It is therefore surprising that the PDP will now query the statistics,” the group said.
It added that the figures aligned with previous data. “For instance, Osun recorded 232,880 registrants in a similar exercise conducted by INEC in 2021. There is no significant difference between that and the 393,269 recorded in 2025. Even at that, the Commission will still clean up the data and publish the register for claims and objections by citizens before the exercise is finalised”.
YYC further faulted what it described as selective outrage by the PDP and ADC.
“Interestingly, they are querying the figures for Osun and the South West in the latest exercise but not those of the FCT”.
The group therefore urged political actors to focus on mobilising citizens to register during the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) instead of heating up the polity unnecessarily.
