PVCs: Voters besiege registration centres

Barely eight days to the deadline announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to draw the curtains in the on-going registration of voters nation-wide, there are visible cases of stampede at different INEC registration centres in Abuja and environs.
Our reporter, who went round Abuja and its environs, revealed that most of the centres recorded a huge turn-out of eligible voters who were not ready to take chances in the last minutes registration exercise for their permanent voter cards (PVCs).
In one of the registration centres close to the Mararaba Post Office, there was explosion in the number of eligible voters that turned out to register for PVCs when our reporter visited the scene.
Some youths, who were apparently angered by the perceived delay in the registration process carried out by the INEC officials on duty, descended on a senior INEC officer at Mararaba centre and had almost lynched him, if he had not taken to his heels.
The officer was visibly sweating profusely as he scampered into a closet for his dear life.
Their grudge, Blueprint learnt, was tied to the fact that, they had arrived at the registration venue early enough in the morning but were locked out of the gate till 9 after which upon gaining entry into the premises, they noticed an alleged ‘fishy’ preferential treatment being accorded to others who had even come after them.
Bukola Jabis, a voter, said: “I have not been voting in the past; but this time around, I have made up my mind to vote and see whether we can change things because the youths are really suffering and nothing is moving in this country.
“I came here yesterday, they asked me to come back to day (Wednesday), only for me to come and remain here at the gate for hours since morning, when I supposed to go hustling for my daily food; what pains me most is that, they the officials are attending to those they prefer, especially women; there’s nothing like first come first serve here.” Checks at other centres across the city showed that eligible voters desirous of voting in next year’s elections in order to avert delay, had to bribe their way to get registered by coughing out up to N500 to the officials to obtain registration forms.
Other sharp practices, Blueprint gathered, at the on-going at the registration centres included the illegal snapping of passport photographs by commercial photographers at the venues when the bio-metric capturing machines had already been designed for photo imaging of voters.
The passports snapped are not used for the purpose at the end of the day, but rather detached from the forms and thrown away after money is being paid for them.
This development was greeted with protests from voters mostly youths, even as the INEC officers turned deaf ears to it.
However, an INEC official told our reporter on condition of anonymity that the electoral umpire was “doing its best.” In the wake of the 2019 general elections, the polity has come alive with scores of defections, alignments and re-alignments by the political players; with campaigns shifting to issues- based to assuming faith and ethnic coloration as everyone wants to have a stake.
INEC had fixed August17, as the closing date for the registration exercise, while the general polls proper had been slated for February, next year.