The Independent National Electoral Commission on Monday, commenced the Continuous Voter Registration exercise in Edo State.
The exercise is meant to capture would-be voters yet register ahead of the governorship election in Edo on September 21.
He added that both the CVR and the PVC collection would be a 10-day exercise from May 27 to June 5, 2024, from 9 am to 3 pm daily including weekends.
This is despite a call from the state acting chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Jarret Tenebe on Friday, to cancel the exercise due to the damage to its secretariat, materials and equipment meant for CVR.
Reacting to the call, the Edo INEC’s head of Voters Education and Publicity, Timidi Wariowei, said it is unfair to lay such an allegation against the election umpire.
Tenebe said the stakeholders meeting held on May 16 at the INEC office in Benin was meant to take care of issues relating, noting that it was wrong to lay such an accusation on the doorstep of the commission.
The CVR exercise monitored in Oredo, Egor and Ikpoba-Okha local government showed that PVC collection was also ongoing side-by-side with the continuous voter registration exercise.
Speaking at the Ikpoba-Okha registration area, the INEC National Commissioner in charge of Edo, Delta and Cross River, Rhoda Gumus, expressed satisfaction with the exercise while urging the registrants to be patient, adding that they will all be registered.
Gumus said, “We have been to Oredo and we are here at the Ikpoba-Okha registration area which we are using as our state head office registration centre because of the flood disaster that happened at our head office on Friday.
“We are in touch with other registration areas within and outside Benin and the exercise is going on smoothly. As you can see, we have registered some people and others are still waiting. The process just started today. It is impressive and commendable, ” she said.
The state Resident Electoral Commissioner, Anugbum Onuoha said that INEC was well prepared for the exercise, adding that the flood disaster that destroyed some of the commission’s equipment could not stop the exercise.
Onuoha said, ” We thank God for the enablement to begin this exercise, having in mind the flood disaster that destroyed some of our equipment on Friday. Due to the flood disaster, we moved our head office registration area to the INEC office at Ikpoba-Okha local government.
“We are here and witnessing a large turnout of people who are here as either new registrants or to transfer their registration or for PVC collection. INEC is prepared for this exercise and nothing will make us fail. People expected us to discontinue the exercise but we were prepared even before the flood disaster happened.
“Yes, we had some initial network problems but it has been resolved and the exercise is going on smoothly and by the grace of God, the exercise will be successful.”
The state acting chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Jarret Tenebe in a statement on Sunday, urged INEC to cancel the exercise due to the damage to its secretariat, materials and equipment meant for CVR.
The APC had on Friday at a press conference in Benin alleged that the People’s Democratic Party and INEC were conniving to manipulate the CVR in favour of the PDP.
The party also said that the CVR’s manipulation was the beginning of moves to rig the election in favour of the PDP.
Text except headline courtesy of Punch
