Eniola Olayemi
Not fewer than 2,500 deceased persons have been removed from the voters’ register of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Yobe State ahead of next month’s general election, the State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Alhaji Ahmad Makama has informed.
Mr. Makama disclosed this on Tuesday at an interactive session with religious leaders at the commission’s conference room in Damaturu, Yobe State.
According to him, the removal underwent a careful process which was carried out during the display of registered voter’s lists across the 1,718 polling units of the state where people identified names of the deceased.
He said; “It’s our duty to remove those names, but before that, those who identified them were given forms to fill and signed before the affected names were removed”.
The commissioner said the meeting was aimed at sharing ideas with religious leaders on the INEC arrangements and progress of the commission is making and solicit their support for the smooth conduct of the forthcoming election.
Mr. Makama regretted that over 100,000 PVCs are still uncollected at various local government offices, just as he appealed to the religious leaders to sensitize their congregations by encouraging them to collect their PVCs.
He added that the collection of the PVC will resume from 16th January to 21st January 2019 at ward level while collection will shift to INEC Local Government Headquarters from 22nd, January 2019 to 8TH February, 2019 where it will be stopped until after the general elections.
He tasked on the religious rulers to educated followers of their faiths against hate speeches.
The REC warned that INEC has put everything in place to mitigate vote buying by politicians.
Both speakers at the event observed limited number of polling unit and distances voters face in trekking to cast their votes on election day.
The representative of JIBWIS, Malam Ibrahim Damaturu, said the situation has affected the smooth voting by prospective voters across the state over the years.
He called on INEC to investigate allegations of vote buying by politician who are believed to be unpopular in certain places.
“We want the INEC to investigate this matter and take appropriate measure,” he said.
Pastor Musa Ezekiel, representative of Chairman of Christian Association of Nigeria Yobe State (CAN) praised the measures put by the electoral body to ensure a hitch free election.
According to him, the Christian faithful in the state have been engaging in prayers and fasting to ensure that the elections come and go without any breach of security both in the state and across the country.
