CVR: We don’t issue death certificates – INEC

…Says, viral ‘Death Form’ row stems from registration officer’s error

By Omeiza Ajayi

ABUJA: The Independent National Electoral Commission INEC has dismissed viral social media claims that its officials were distributing death certificates to citizens during the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration CVR, describing the incident as a procedural error by a registration officer that was easily misinterpreted in a politically charged climate.

An INEC official, who spoke to Vanguard, on the condition of anonymity said the form at the centre of the controversy — INEC Form EC 3A, officially titled ‘Notification of Death of a Person Named on the Register’ — was not a voter registration form and was never intended to be given to fresh registrants at the point of registration but only during claims and objections.

“The said form is for Claims and Objections. INEC does not issue death certificates. We are in very politically sensitive times and any little thing could be misinterpreted, either mischievously or innocently. Now, the officials in that local government should have struck off the title had they needed to use them,” the official said.

According to social media reports, the uproar began when a man attempting to complete his voter documentation noticed what he described as severe discrepancies in the paperwork handed to him by commission staff. He alleged that the physical forms were explicitly formatted as official death registries, despite officials verbally assuring the public that they were standard voter registration sheets.

“We are being asked to fill and sign what is clearly a death certificate form, but they are calling it a voters’ registration form,” the man stated in a video recorded at the scene.

The announcement quickly alarmed other citizens waiting in line, causing a temporary halt to registration activities at the centre.

The INEC official who spoke to Vanguard in Abuja, however, explained the context in which Form EC 3A was legitimately used, stressing that it formed part of the commission’s ongoing effort to clean up the voter register by removing deceased persons.

“The form is only given out during Claims and Objections, after the registration process has ended. It is one of the ways we clean up the register. There are thousands of deceased people on the voter register and we can only strike such dead voters off the register with the help of fellow Nigerians — voters who are in that polling unit. And even when the forms are given out during Claims and Objections, the voter who is filling them must attach an evidence to support his or her claim that a registered voter is now deceased. He either attaches a death certificate or an obituary, and such claim will also be investigated by the Commission before any action is taken,” the official explained.

The official acknowledged, however, that the registration officer may have run out of the standard registration form — INEC Form EC 1A — and made a poor judgment call in reaching for EC 3A as a substitute.

“Even if the registration officer ran out of the main registration form — INEC Form EC 1A — what he ought to have done in trying to get the details of prospective registrants was to have struck or torn off the heading of the so-called death certificate and leave only items applicable to new registrants,” the official said.

INEC Form EC 1A is the standard instrument for new voter registration, capturing biometrics, personal details and address for polling unit assignment. Form EC 3A, by contrast, is specifically designed for relatives or associates reporting a deceased registered voter, and requires the attachment of a death certificate or obituary before any action can be taken on the register.

The commission has said it has so far removed 7,746 deceased persons from the voter register through the claims and objections process, including 2,500 in Yobe State alone, as part of efforts to ensure the integrity of the register ahead of the 2027 general elections.

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