Some stakeholders in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have appealed to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to decentralise centres for the continuous voters’ registration (CVR) from area council offices to polling units. 

Some of the stakeholders, including political parties, council bosses, Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC), civil society organisations and people living with disabilities, made this known at the flag off of the exercise in Karu yesterday. 

The chairman of FCT-IPAC, Joseph Ndirang, said the six registration centres in the territory were inadequate considering the landscape and distance between communities.

He expressed fear that people in remote areas might not be covered by the exercise if nothing was done to decentralise the registration points, noting that there were communities in the territory whose residents would have to spend more than N3,000 to go for the exercise and return home. 

“In AMAC, there is a village that it would take N1,000 for a person to come to his ward in Karshi and from Karshi to Karu that is another story. It is going to be extremely difficult for people to come. Let it trickle down, to at least ward level,” he said. 

On his part, the Chairman of the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu Candido, said the exercise was important to the political process in the country as such efforts should be made to ensure residents were not disfranchised.   

“AMAC is not just from AYA and Zuba. Around Karu, you can count villages that are about 50km to the city centre. We want every Nigerian to be part of this exercise so it needs to get to the grassroots where the people are domiciled,” he said.  

He said if the exercise was taken to zone, ward or polling units, people would have easy access to collect their PVCs and then be able to exercise their franchise. 

POSTED BY:OPUOMONI PRIYE

DATE:04/28/2017