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Many Nigerians are disgruntled because the Continuous Voters Registration, CVR, was closed on Sunday, and many are yet to get captured. They have therefore appealed to INEC to extend the exercise again.
According to reports from our source, DAILY POST, anxious Nigerians flooded different registration centers on Sunday to beat the July 31 deadline set by INEC on June 25.
Recall that INEC initially extended the exercise from June 30 to July 31, 2022, to allow eligible Nigerians to get their PVC before the next year’s elections.
However, despite the extension of the service to churches and other places in a bid to aid the registration, many Nigerians are yet to get registered.
Reports from our source who visited some centers in Abuja on Sunday discovered that some angry intending voters were fuming, alleging that INEC has a plan to disenfranchise some Nigerians.
One of the angered PVC applicants, Mr. Ojo K.T, in his speech to our source in Kubwa CVR centre, lamented that since Monday, he had tried registering to no avail.
He said, “I think they just don’t want us to vote. Look at the people that are going to be denied the opportunity to participate in the election. What is wrong in this country?
“If you look around, you will notice that most of us here that have been here since 3am this morning are youths. They are afraid of the revolution that is coming and that is why they are deliberately pushing us away.”
According to him, the Buhari-led administration only understands protest, saying, “we must hit the street to demand the extension of the exercise. It is our right to vote, and nobody should violate that right.”
Amid the registration issue, the Bwari INEC office had only two computers to service a thronging crowd since the commencement of the exercise.
The President General of the Coalition of South East Youth Leaders, COSEYL, Goodluck Ibem, lamented to our source how several Southeast residents were unable to register during the exercise.
He said, “The 2022 voters’ registration exercise looks like a calculated attempt by some politicians to deny the people of Southeast the opportunity of registering for their voter’s card.”
He also said the Southeast was deliberately deprived of adequate equipment, which according to him, was not the same in the Northern parts of Nigeria.
“In the North, we are very aware that the INEC provided sufficient and adequate registration materials for the exercise,” he added.
Similarly, an activist, Adetunji Abiola, declared to our source that the failure of INEC to extend the registration date could lead to mass protests across the nation.
He said, “Now that Nigerian youths want to fully participate in elections for the first time, we have been denied the opportunity to do that. I can tell you that over a million Nigerian youths are going to be disenfranchised if we don’t act on time.
“We give this government at least a week to reopen the INEC portal for more registration, or they may force us to the street so that the international community can come to our aid.”
On Saturday, in response to the calls, the INEC National Commissioner, Voter Education and Publicity, Barr. Festus Okoye said in a chat with newsmen in Awka, Anambra State, that there is no way the exercise will be extended.
#INEC registration
#Protest
#PVC
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