Yemisi Izuora
In consideration to avalanche of complain in the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration, CVR, exercise by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC in Lagos state, the National Orientation Agency, NOA, has written to the Commission advising it to extend the exercise to include Saturday’s.
Speaking today at the Citizens Engagement forum on “Continuous Voter Registration Citizens Participation and Electoral Process” organised by the International Press Centre, IPC, director of NOA in Lagos Waheed Ishola said he was prompted to write INEC to include weekends after the agency received numerous complaints from residents that apart from locations that are not easily accessible the working class could easily be disenfranchised as they would not have the opportunity to register.
Ishola also urged INEC to continuously engage critical stakeholders to ensure to ensure the grassroots are fully mobilised for the exercise.
He expressed concern about the numerous complain by residents especially in accessing locations for the exercise as he said that the registration is the only assurance for citizens to participate in the electoral process to elect leaders of their choice.
Speaking earlier, Akin Orebiyi former Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, of INEC in Lagos, explained the importance of the exercise.
According to him, the INEC is performing the current task to enable those who had earlier registered but were unable to be issued with Permanent Voters Card, PVC, or have relocated to another area to rectify such anomalies before the 2019 general elections.
He also noted that those who just turned 18 years are eligible for registration under the ongoing exercise while those who lost their cards or have their cards defaced can be given a replacement.
In her speech Mrs. Seye Soriyan head of Information Technology of Lagos INEC said the agency has dedicated special units for women, youths and people with disabilities to continuously engage them and encourage their participation in the exercise.
She said special training has been extended to INEC officials who attend to these category of people so that special attention is given to them.