FEATURE: How INEC officials are frustrating PVC collection across South-West region
Some weeks ago, there were pictures of underage voters at a polling unit in Kano trending online.
The pictures attracted widespread criticism directed at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Many believed the commission was sabotaging free and fair election by allowing underage voters participate in the country’s voting process.
Contrary to what was seen online and the speculation of easy electioneering in the northern part of the country, Newsroom has gathered that the opposite is the case in the South-West.
Prospective voters are experiencing difficulties in getting their Permanent Voters Card (PVC).
Our Newsroom correspondent who visited Temidire primary school, Oke-Odo where INEC officials conduct registration for residents in the Alimosho Local Government area of the state, gathered from the people at the centre that the process was frustrating.
One Rasheed Adeyemi, a butcher who went for registration at the centre, told Newsroom that the INEC officials choose to attend to only a certain number of people daily.
Adeyemi said, “My first time of coming here, I couldn’t collect because there were many people on ground. I got here as early as 6:00am, and the first time I came I was on number 116. That day I think they only attended to 60 people. Today again, I have been here since 5am to register my name.”
He added that the registration process is not made easy.
“My challenge is that the stress attached to registering and collecting PVC in this country is very alarming. The officials should be more than this in numbers and have enough machines to work,” he said.
In a similar vein, one Haruna Sanusi who went to Quarry Road Abeokuta for his PVC registration, expressed that he might get discouraged in the process of registering for his PVC.
“The first time I went to the centre closer to me here in Ogun State, it was too crowded. Though, I have registered before but was unable to get it. I may subsequently lose interest in it as a matter of fact,” he said.
Buttressing Sanusi’s claim, Abike Ilerika, lamented the process of the registration, saying it is ridiculous.
“I have been to the INEC office twice. The first time, there were many crowd and the second time, we were told to lineup. Later in the day, having got there since 5am, they said they could not attend to anyone again, that we should come a day after. That is Iyana Mortuary in Abeokuta, the INEC office there, the following week I was able to register my name, I was given the temporary card but we are yet to collect the permanent one.
“They didn’t ask me for money, but some people complain that when they get there they are told to drop something before being attended to,” she added.
A senior official of the commission who doesn’t want his name mentioned, told Newsroom that the fact that people arrive early at registration centres is not primarily because they want to be registered to be eligible to vote.
According to him, most people coming for the registration are people who only needed the PVC to resolve issues with their banks. He further stressed that a lot of people need to be properly oriented on how to go about the registration of PVC.
He said, “The frustration is not based on our ineffectiveness as INEC officials, though, the commission has its own lapses. Most of the people you are seeing have been registered before, some of them misplaced their cards and instead of them to say I have misplaced my card, they will say I want to re-register. The problem is if you have registered before and you want to register again, you are hindering somebody’s else’s chance.”
Addressing claims that there are certain number of persons they register everyday, he affirmed that it is true.
He said, “Yesterday, we gave out 60 numbers and at the end of the day, we registered 80 people. We gave out 60 numbers because if we see an aged person, he/she would be attended to, pregnant women would be attended to, physically challenged persons would be attend to, nursing mothers as well. When you now bring these other people together, it even goes beyond the numbers we give out. We don’t have any health facility here, so if we delay a pregnant woman here and there is a problem who’s going to take care of the mess. We can’t keep people waiting unnecessarily. We are using this system to ease people.”
The INEC Director of Voter Publicity, Osaze Uzzi told Newsroom that there is no certain number of people that are required to be registered at INEC centres.
He said, “Each centres register the number of people they think they can register. There is nothing like a minimum or maximum number of people that should be registered. If you can register 100, you register 100, if it is 30 you can register you register 30.”
Uzzi added that nobody can complain about the number of INEC officials assigned to centres to register people.
