THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been called upon to end the long queues of residents besieging registration centres in Lagos State by providing more registration machines and personnel.
The State’s Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Kehinde Bamigbetan, made this call while addressing members of a political group, The Mandate Movement at a special meeting that took place during Sallah at his residence in Ejigbo.
This was just as Bamigbetan lamented that hundreds of enthusiastic citizens mobilized by the group to register for their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) were discouraged by the hardship encountered at the centres.
According to him, the hardship was unnecessary and avoidable as more machines and personnel could be deployed to meet the surge that the advocacy for registration had created.
“If INEC lacks the funds to purchase more machines, it should seek aid from state and federal agencies which appreciate the importance of this civic responsibility. The members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) can be mobilized as ad-hoc staff.
“I am appealing to INEC to think outside the box. A situation in which two machines are serving thousands of willing registrants in Ejigbo is certainly advisable,” he said.
Bamigbetan also called on the INEC to make use of the over 4,000 community development associations in the state to distribute the millions of cards in its possession, noting that the CDAs were legally registered entities with authority over a specific number of streets and households.
“Our CDAs are legally registered entities with authority over a specific number of streets and households. They can act as agents of INEC in distributing the cards to the owners. The current system of waiting for them to come is not delivering results,” the commissioner said.
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Urging participants at the meeting to ensure that the All Progressives Congress (APC) plans to expand membership was executed to the letter, Bamigbetan said the directive of the National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, reiterated by Lagos State governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode, recently was a task that must be accomplished.
He thanked the members for their staunch support of the APC government at federal, state and local government levels, assuring them that all the electioneering pledges would be fulfilled.
In his speech at the event, the chairman of the Ejigbo Local Council Development Area (LCDA), Hon. Monsuru Bello Obe, commended the state and the local government for the successful completion of Ona Iwa Mimo Street where the meeting took place, adding that many road projects were still on the board.
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