The management of the Internally Displaced Persons’ (IDPs) camp in Uhogua, Ovia North East Local Government Area of Edo, has appealed to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to create a polling unit within the camp.
Mr Solomon Folorunsho, the Coordinator of the camp, made the appeal on Tuesday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Benin.
Folorunsho explained that INEC creating a polling unit within the camp would help in addressing the challenges of transporting eligible voters from the camp to voting centres and providing security for them.
Folorunsho said that e camp’s management usually grapple with such challenges during elections.
He said that the appeal had become imperative in view of the ongoing continuous voter registration.
He disclosed that at present, there were no fewer than 400 eligible voters with valid voter cards in the camp, adding that those were the IDPs registered before the 2015 general elections.
He added that currently, there were no fewer than 300 prospective eligible voters, who then could not be registered because they were not of voting age.
He, therefore, said that with such a population, the best solution would be to create a poling unit within the camp to register prospective eligible voters.
Also, eligible voters would be able to perform their civic rights during the 2023 general elections.
“At present, we have about 400 registered voters here, and we also have more than 300 prospective eligible voters yet to be registered.
“So with this population, we need a polling unit here so that we don’t need to begin to think of how to carry them out as well as provide security to accompany them to far places to cast their votes during elections and back.
“It is on the strength of this that we are appealing to INEC and the other relevant authorities to consider creating a polling unit here,” he said.
The coordinator told NAN that the issue was brought before INEC some years back when they came to the camp to register eligible voters.
“They had, then, promised us to make the camp a polling unit, but it never came to be. But we are sincerely hoping that they will consider us and make it good this time,” Folorunsho said. (NAN)
