The Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC) has said it has registered a total of 304,359 voters made up of 154, 830
females and 149,429 males in the ongoing continuous voter registration
exercise, (CVR) in Enugu State as of April 20, 2018.
Speaking at a stakeholders’ forum on CVR and update
on the commission's readiness ahead of the 2019 general election, on Wednesday, the Resident
Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state, Mr. Emeka Ononamandu, said they were
working round the clock to ensure every eligible voter was captured in the
registration exercise.
He said the commission had distributed 22,913
outstanding Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVC) from 2014 registration exercise that
was not collected then.
Ononamandu said the total number of registered voters has
placed Enugu State within the first 10 states that have registered more people
than other states in Nigeria. Ononamadu
further disclosed that the commission has transferred 3,272 registered voters
to the state and recorded as well as collected data for replacement of a total
of 10,144 defaced or lost PVCs.
The REC said
though INEC has done well in the continuous voter registration exercise, it has
faced serious challenges of burglary which has affected its performance.
“Since September 2017 till date, INEC in Enugu State
has faced three major burglaries that led to loss and eventual recovery of our
Direct Data Capture (DDC) Machine which occasioned some delays in our CVR
efforts. On September 25, our Enugu South Office was burgled and DDC machines
as well as other accessories stolen. On November 2017, Oji River office was
burgled while our Ezeagu Office was burgled on March 19, 2018. These burglaries
have seriously affected our CVR output.
"This is a dangerous trend that is becoming
more consistent in Enugu than other states. It has reached a point that I am
ashamed of regularly reporting case of burglary of our offices to our national headquarters.
“The commission has faced incessant harassment of
our staff and registration officers in the field. In one occasion, our
registration officer was stabbed with bottle while he was handling registration
at Prison Club. In other places, it is rare to see citizens harming a
registration officer or disrupting the process because there was no security
attached to each registration centre,” he lamented.
Ononamadu, however, assured the residents of state
that under his watch, their votes will count in 2019 general election.
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