Fresh reports hitting the desk of Africa Today News, New York have revealed that Prof Sam Egwu, who is the Niger State Resident Electoral Commissioner, National Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC has revealed that a total of 248,000 voters were registered within the last one year in the state.
Egwu, who had announced this in a chat with newsmen in Minna, said out of the figure, about 229,000 were registered for the first time by the commission in the state. He explained that the remaining 19,000 voters were those who made transfers, corrections as well as those whose Permanent Voters Cards, PVCs, were damaged and came to the state INEC office for them to be replaced in the state.
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The state REC also disclosed that the printed voter’s card despatched to the state from its headquarters in the first and second quarters of 2021 have been sent to the 25 LGAs for onward distribution to eligible voters registered in the respective council.
According to him, “The printed voter’s cards sent to the state in the first and second quarters of last year have been sent to the 25 LGAs for distribution to those who registered.”
Speaking on the issue of multiple registration, he further stated Niger State has not recorded much in that area, saying, “such cases are at the lower level in the state.”
In a previous report, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) openly expressed some concerns over the poor turnout of their residents who have been registering for the Permanent Voter Card (PVC) in the newly established 1,750 polling units in Katsina state.
The INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner for Katsina State (REC), Alhaji Jibril Zarewa had made this disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Katsina.
He said that one year after the commencement of PVC registration, there was a poor turnout of people for registration in the newly established polling units.
According to Zarewa, “In May 2022 when we did the analysis, we realized out of the 1,750 newly established polling units, about 1,200 units did not have more than 50 people who registered in each of them.
“This registration involved transfers. Some of the polling units have zero registration, some have only one, some five while some have not more than 50 people who registered.
“Although this can be attributed to the suspension of telecommunication networks in 17 of the 34 Local Government Areas (LGAs) for about five months due to the security problem.
“Since the resumption of the exercise in March, out of the 1,750 polling units created, about 1,200 don’t have up to 50 people that registered in each of them.
“We are appealing to the people of those areas where the new polling units were created to go and register, as INEC is always ready for them.
“The reasons for the creation of additional polling units is to serve the areas and decongest the congested polling units through the transfer of their polling units, he said.