Comrade Abdulwaheed Odunuga the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) House of Representative candidate in Kosofe Federal constituency, has pleaded with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to extend the voter registration exercise across the country, so as to ensure many eligible voters are not disenfranchised.
The NNPP House of Reps seat flag bearer in 2023 election (Abdulwaheed) notes that as the deadline for voters registration, a precursor to the issuance of Permanent Voter Cards, draws to a close, the process has suffered a hitch in his constituency like elsewhere across the country.
Abdulwaheed lamented the poor showing of INEC in Kosofe, while in a chat with newsmen on Saturday.
“The voter registration across the country and especially in Kosofe had been impeded by bureaucratic bottlenecks, inadequate manpower and equipment in INEC offices, thus making it difficult to have a seamless registration process.
“This has led to delays and restiveness of citizens waiting to register in long queues.
He stated that many Nigerians will be discouraged and disenfranchised if the exercise proceeds in this manner.
“In addition, INEC is yet to cover many of the rural communities in this process thereby excluding citizens,who may be far away from the INEC LGA offices.
Abdulwaheed who doubles as the National Vice President of Joint Action for Good Governance (JAGG) called on INEC to facilitate a speedy registration of voters, to ensure they were able to exercise their constitutional rights.
It will be recalled that INEC had earlier extended the deadline for online registration of new PVCs from May 31, 2022, to June 30, 2022.
However, the electoral umpire maintained barring any new twist in policy the deadline for all registrations on June 30.