Ahead of the June 30th deadline for the suspension of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Continuous Voter’s Registration Exercise, some residents of Umuahia, the Abia State Capital are calling for the extension of the program to enable them complete registration.
Recall that the electoral umpire commenced the voters registration exercise on June 2021 and announced that the exercise would end by 30th June 2022; a situation that has thrown more panic in the process with INEC centres witnessing more influx of people who are willing to perform their civic duties.
At the INEC office, Adelabu Street Umuahia, where National Ambassador reporter visited,a crowd of prospective registrants who trouped out to be captured in the ongoing exercise decried the slow attitude of officials and complained of not being attended to; an action they described as a ploy to disenfranchise them ahead of the 2023 general elections.
In an interview,some of the prospective registrants including Sir Dennis Ike, Lukeman Aminu, Mrs. Favour Ukaegbu and Divine Chukwuemeka said they have heeded the call to perform their civic duty but regretted that officials of INEC are denying them the opportunity to be captured in the exercise.
They therefore called on INEC to extend the programme as well as employ more hands for the smooth running of the exercise in order not to disenfranchise those who are willing to register.
But in a swift reaction, the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner for Abia State, Dr. Joseph Iloh stated that there is no going back on the June 30th deadline given by the commission for the suspension of the voters registration exercise.
He said; “If there is going to be an extension of the registration, it will be the decision of the commission which would be meeting soon. For now, the closing date for the registration according to the commission is 30th June”.
Dr Iloh blamed the upsurge in registration to the lackadaisical attitude of Nigerians in identifying with Government programmes such as the INEC registration.
He however explained that the Commission has mechanism for such upsurge and would tackle it with the use of their Intervention Machines designed for handling cases where prospective registrants are more than the personnel handling them.
Dr. Iloh disclosed that the INEC in Abia targets to register 3 million voters and appealed to all eligible voters to go to any centre nearest to them to be captured, informing that the INEC registration centres opens between 9am to 5pm on each work day.
“All persons who registered in the past from 2011 to date should know that their PVCs are still valid, you only need to confirm it by dailing “voters.inecnigeria.org“, Iloh said.
