By Adadainfo
As the continuous voter registration (CVR) exercise gets set to end on July 31, 2022, a lot of Nigerians are still unable to carry out the exercise, with crowds thronging registration centres for days to no avail.
Adadainfo who went to three registration centre in Abuja yesterday found hundreds of persons desperately trying to register or regularise their data in order to get their PVCs to vote in the 2023 elections.
Our correspondent noticed hundreds of aspiring voters at registration centers at GSS Nyanya and at INEC office in Karu, both in Abuja, and at the INEC office in Mararaba, Nasarawa.
One of them seen at GSS Nyanya, Mr Julius Oguche, told Adadainfo that he had been coming for three consecutive days and was yet to get registered.
“I came here today before 6am but the number on the list is 175. Now it is 730am and there are 400 on the list. I am told they can only attend to about 80-to100 persons.
“See young people everywhere jostling to register. They are going to be denied their voting right if INEC does not extend the deadline.”
When asked why he was just trying to register for his PVC, he said the recent election in Osun State in which the incumbent governor and party were beaten gave him confidence that the voters might count this time around.
“Everyone knows that Governor Oyetola was Asiwaju Tinubu’s blood relative. If they could not rig him back to power in Osun State, then there is hope they won’t be able to manipulate 2023 presidential election. That is the election I am interested in,” he said.
A nursing mother at the Karu INEC Office said the Unit was considerate to consider nursing mothers and pregnant women.
Mrs Grace Omaliku said, “I have not started going out with my baby but I cannot miss the opportunity to vote in next years’ election.
“I am really concerned that many will not be captured in the INEC data bank to vote. The last number they called was 1,446 and more are still coming? The crowd has been like this since last week.”
Most people at the centres begged INEC to extend the closure of registration till August 31 as the House of Representatives had suggested.
An INEC official at the Mararaba INEC office said she does not think the electoral body will extend the closure once again.
“This exercise has been ongoing for over a year. In fact, we have been largely doing little all this while, only for this late rush. We need to plan for the election proper,” she said.
