On Saturday, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced the deployment of an additional 209 voter registration devices to Lagos and Kano states, as well as the five southeastern states.
According to Festus Okoye, National Commissioner of INEC and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, this was done to relieve congestion at the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) centers. He said, “information from various registration centers across the country shows that the number of persons wanting to register as voters has increased.”
This, according to him, is why the commission called for an emergency meeting with all Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) on Thursday to assess the situation and ensure that eligible Nigerians who want to register can do so.
Mr. Festus Okoye went on to say that the commission took it upon itself to install extra voter registration machines as soon as possible in order to alleviate the backlog at registration centers. He added that the commission will keep an eye on the issue over the next few days and then meet to assess the exercise’s progress.
As a result, the commission has appealed to all Nigerians for greater patience and understanding, as every effort will be made to guarantee that all eligible Nigerians are given the opportunity to register as voters.
The Commissioner said the unexpected turnout demonstrated Nigerians’ growing trust in the INEC voting process, and that the commission will work hard to sustain that trust.
