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President Muhammadu Buhari, on Tuesday, admonished those who wanted their votes to count in the next general election in the country to endeavour to participate in the National Identity Card registration currently going on.

He said the scheme would necessarily complement the voter registration exercise by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to check under-aged voters and the likes that had impugned on the integrity of past elections.

The President spoke shortly after being registered by officials of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja.

​Buhari told State House correspondents after the registration: “I think this exercise is very important to confirm our population and those who are entitled to vote; that is those who are 18 years and above. It will complement the exercise of the permanent voters’ card.

“So for those who want their votes to count from whichever party or constituency, they should ensure that they and their families are properly captured.”

In his remarks, the Director General of NIMC, Mr. Chris Onyemenam, said, the exercise “is not a one off thing in the sense that there is no time limit.

“It is a continuous exercise. So every enrollment centre that we have established remain open forever, they are like branches of banks.

We are taking deliberate steps to ensure that enrollment centres are opened in each local government.”

He added that in collaboration with MDAs, the exercise was being extended to universities and other tertiary educational institutions.

The NIMC boss also disclosed that only about seven million had so far been captured in the scheme so far.

“On our data base, we have a record of seven million. In collaboration with other agencies, in the next three months or so, we hope to quadruple that number,” he stated.