…as IPC Urges INEC to pay more attention to media reports on violence incidents
By Joy Odor
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has charged the media to assist in mobilising new registrants for the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) starting on 27 May 2024 in Edo and Ondo state, particularly on the need to register early and not wait until the deadline approaches when the registration centres will be inundated by eleventh hour registrants.
Prof Mahmood Yakubu, the INEC Chairman who gave the charge at the Second Quarterly Consultative Meeting with the Nigeria Media in online, print and electronic on Wednesday maintained that there will be no online pre-registration option in the two States because of time constraint.
According to him, the CVR is to take place at the ward levels and state offices because of time constraint while in the next few days, it will commence the training of at least 794 officials for the exercise.
INEC Chairman stressed that with the registration of voters, the Commission will also make available the uncollected Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) for collection during the CVR.
He encourage the media houses to submit applications for accreditation to report on the election in earnest.
INEC boss said the Commission will not entertain requests outside the deadline for the receipt of applications from interested media organisations or process requests that do not meet the criteria for accreditation.
Prof Yakubu opined that, doing so will enable the Commission to produce and deliver the identity cards for journalists covering the election in good time.
“Residents in both states are expected to go to the polls to elect new governors on the 21 September and 16 November 2024.
“Taking into consideration the limited time to the Governorship elections, the Commission has decided to conduct the registration at Ward level and our State headquarters instead of our Local Government offices and a few designated centers as was the case in the past. This means that there will be 192 Ward registration centres in Edo State and 203 centres in Ondo State in addition to our State offices in Benin City and Akure, making a total of 397 walk-in registration centres in the two states. There will be no online pre-registration option in the two states because of time constraint. Each centre will be managed by two officials drawn from our regular staff and the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). In the next few days, the Commission will commence the training of at least 794 officials for the exercise. The locations of the registration centres as well as other relevant information have been compiled in a detailed 28-page document included in your folders for this meeting. The same information has already been uploaded to our website and social media platforms for public information.
“In the coming days, the list of uncollected PVCs will be published in our offices in the two States and simultaneously uploaded to our website. We believe that doing so will make it easier for voters to know the availability of the cards and identify the locations to collect them.
“However, no PVCs will be collected by proxy. Registered voters should come in person to collect their cards. Again, we seek for the support of the media in encouraging voters to locate and pick up thier PVCs as was done in the past,” he added.
”As we move closer to Election Day in Edo State, it is also imperative to request media organisations to submit applications for accreditation to report on the election in earnest along with the required documentation for individual journalists and support staff” he noted.
Contributing to the issue, Lanre Arogundade, the Executive Director of International Press Center Lagos-Nigeria (IPC) told Prof Yakubu to focus more on security during the Edo and Ondo Governorship elections now INEC had commenced CVR exercise.
This is as he also told INEC chairman to pay attention to media reports, particularly the social media while charging the media to strive more to hold the political parties accountable for their actions.
Arogundade advocated on the need for documentation of violence incidents during and after elections in Nigeria, maintaining that doing so would reduce the incidence.
“Just to call your attention to focus on security more during the off cycle elections, l said this because of the video circulating of the group of young people attacking the campaign of one of the ruling party.
“This should be taken as early warning signal now that INEC has started CVR. I think we should anticipate such anger possibly directed to INEC officials.
“The aspect of security very important and it would be good for INEC to pay attention to media reports, particularlly the social media.
“To my colleague, the media. We should strive to do more to hold political parties accountable for their actions as a lot of this happen during their primaries.
“We need to also document the incident of violence in the election, if we do so coordinatedlly, it would reduce the incidence ” he observed.
