By Gami Tadanyigbe
Two days to the end of the Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), massive turnout was recorded on Friday in Kuje Area Council of FCT.
The exercise which was generally peaceful, orderly and hitch-free at the Kuje INEC office and some registration centres, was crowded few days to the deadline.
The registrants included people who wanted to register for new Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), people whose cards had been defaced and those that wanted to do transfer to another polling unit.
However, Mr Yakubu Allawa, the Kuje INEC Electoral Officer (EO), said the office had only four functional machines for the entire area council, thereby making the exercise cumbersome.
Allawa said another major challenge the commission was facing was issue of poor network, which had been slowing down the process during capturing.
According to him, decentralisation of the registration centre has helped in speeding up the exercise and in extension decongested population at the office.
He added that adequate priority was being given to Persons with Disability (PWDs), the elderly and pregnant women in the area.
“We have been asking people to come out and register for a long time, this mentality of coming out at the last minute have to be discouraged.
“For long people refused to come out to register and now that the closure for the exercise is drawing nearer, people are trooping out in large numbers,” he said.
However, the electoral officer called on all major stakeholders, especially traditional rulers and political party stalwarts, to collaborate to make the registration easy before the deadline.
He said that the commission was ready to make the exercise seamless if stakeholders would cooperate and assist in organising registrants at their various units for easy registration.
Earlier, before the decentralisation of the registration, some registrants described the exercise as tedious and cumbersome, marred by delay in capturing, slow process and other technical hitches.
They, therefore, appealed for deployment of more machines to different electoral wards in Kuje to fast track their registration before the deadline.
The commission had fixed July 31, as the deadline for the exercise across the country. (NAN)
