As the continuous Voter Registration (CVR), enters the third phase, Akwa Ibom State Governor Mr Udom Emmanuel, has called on the nation’s electoral umpire Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), to embark on sensitization campaigns to enable the people take advantage of the exercise and be registered for the 2019 general elections.
Governor Emmanuel made the call during his interaction with the state Resident Electoral Commissioner, Barr. Mike Igini, who led the management of the Commission on a courtesy visit to the Governor at Government House, Uyo.
Mr Emmanuel traced the seeming apathy demonstrated by people on the exercise to logistic challenges that characterized the registration in the past.
He mentioned insufficient number of registration centers, paucity of registration materials as major constraint to the registration and solicited for the deployment of more capturing machines to registration centres to speed up the exercise as well as establishment of registration centres at riverine and remote communities of the state to ease participation.
Mr Emmanuel who assured the commission of the state government’s coperation for the smooth conduct of the excercise, spoke of his determination to providing adequate logistics to enable the commission accomplished it assigned task.
He urged INEC to liase with state, local governments and political organizations to conduct elections bereft of rancor, arguing that such synergy would not erode public confidence on the Commission or prevent it from discharging it duties.
Earlier, Mr. Igini, stated that the visit was to formally intimate the leadership of the state on his assumption of duty and stated his preparedness to chart a purpose-driven commission under his leadership, describing Akwa Ibom as “a leading state in the annals of INEC success in previous electoral decisions for the country”.
Barr. Igini pointed out that continuous voters registration was necessary in view of the commission’s determination to update the electoral register in order to give Nigerians opportunity to exercise their franchise.
He said the commission, having realized the challenges faced by the state following shortage of registration centers, has created additional eight registration centers to complement the existing 31 centres in the state, explaining that the measure would give electorates more room for registration as well as reduce tension that categorized previous excercise.
He hinted that the third phase of the registration would commence on Monday 30th November , 2017 and solicited the state government assistance as regards aggresive publicity for the exercise.
Igini, a former INEC Commissioner in Cross River State, said he would bring to bear, experiences gathered during his stewardship in his previous stations in the discharge of his duties and assured of a smooth working relationship with the government and people of the state.
