Fayose Calls For Extension Of Voters Registration Exercise

The Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has called for an extension of the Voters Registration Exercise in the state.

The governor after inspection of the just concluded exercise complained about the number of people yet to be registered.

He said, ”I’ve gone round to monitor this exercise and I observed that people came out in large number but unfortunately INEC did not deploy enough personnel and registering systems for this exercise.

“I plead with INEC to add more days so as not to disenfranchise all these people from voting in the July 14 governorship election”.

INEC is, however, saying it cannot extend the exercise as it has to prepare adequately for the July 114 governorship poll.

The spokesperson of INEC in the state, Mr Taiwo Gbadegesin explained that the primary aim of the exercise is to accommodate those who attained the age of eighteen after the last exercise and people who were indisposed while the previous exercise lasted.

The commission believes those who are well above the age of 18 have no excuse not to have registered, adding that multiple registrations will be discovered and discarded.

”Some have lost their cards and are going ahead to register again instead of following the procedure laid down by INEC. But I must say that there is no double or multiple registrations that will scale through” Gbadegesin said.

In its effort to enhance the franchise of eligible voters in the state INEC designated 177 registration centres across the sixteen local government areas of the state for this registration exercise.

Only one person was however assigned to each of the centres to handle the registration.