The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has ordered the deployment of more voter registration machines to the Commission’s office in Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), FCT.
INEC’s Chairman, Prof. Mahmmoud Yakubu, disclosed this while briefing newsmen after a visit to the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration Centre in INEC‘s AMAC office in Karu, FCT, to assess the exercise.
Yakubu said the directive was to serve the area better in the ongoing voter registration.
“I keep saying that we have learned a lot from the experience of the registration between 2017 and 2018.
“The combination of physical and online registration has reduced the crowd. So we do not see the kind of crowd that we used to see before.
“This is the second week of the physical registration and we have seen that the number is increasing.
“I just directed the Director, ICT, at the headquarters to add additional machines to our office in Karu, AMAC, and will continue to respond in that manner so that we attend to Nigerians more speedily and more conveniently.
“So far with the exercise in the first week of the fiscal registration, 120,600 Nigerians registered, no queue in any of our offices nationwide.
“So this is quite encouraging to us, but we will keep responding to ensure that we serve Nigerians better.”
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Yakubu and his team of national commissioners earlier visited two of such registration Centres in Nasarawa State.
The Centres were INEC offices in Keffi, Keffi Local Government Area, and Mararaba, Karu Local Government Area, Nasarawa State.
Yakubu had earlier addressed a retreat on “the optimisation of the Election Monitoring and Support Centre (EMSC)” operational structure in Keffi.
He said over the last five weeks, eligible citizens were given the opportunity to begin their registration online and then complete it physically at designated Centres.
He said that at the same time, those who prefered the in-person option could register at any of INEC state or local government offices nationwide.
“The two processes are going ahead simultaneously. We are glad that INEC is the first Election Management Body (EMB) to introduce online voter registration in Africa.
“The benefits are already encouraging. Citizens are served promptly and seamlessly without congestion at the registration Centres and in full compliance with COVID-19 protocols.
“I wish to assure Nigerians that we will continue to innovate for the transparency and credibility of our elections,” he added.
Yakubu gave the assurance that INEC would continue to work hard to ensure that citizens had pleasant experience at every stage of the process. (NAN)
