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Interim National Publicity Secretary, All Progressives Congress, Lai Mohammed

The All Progressives Congress in Ekiti State has expressed worries over what it called avoidable deficiencies in the handling of the ongoing voter registration in the state by the Independent National Electoral Commission.

It described the exercise as shoddy, noting that it was a deliberate attempt to disenfranchise the people of the state from participating in the June 21 governorship election.

The party, in a release signed by the Director of Publicity and Media of the party in the state, Segun Dipe, noted that the shortcomings observed in the handling of the registration exercise in most of the designated centres showed lack of adequate preparation by INEC.

The APC noted that it was a deliberate attempt to short-change the people, stressing that the outcry was based on the facts on the ground.

The APC also blamed INEC for the use of obsolete equipment and inadequacy of staff and materials, noting that the current happenings ran contrary to INECs promise to get it right with the Ekiti governorship election.

The statement reads in part, This is not about one party; it is about a people who want INEC to conduct a credible election for them to have a democratically elected governor in the saddle. It is about a people who do not want to relive their past experience. And it is about a people who do not want to be short-changed by anyone. They deserve to be duly registered without hiccups. They should be encouraged, not discouraged.

The use of faulty or obsolete systems was noticed right from the first day of the exercise in some of the designated centres, where data collected could not be stored in the systems and thus got wiped off immediately. It is, therefore, possible that those whose registration have been concluded and issued the temporary cards may still have their names missing from INECs list. This is likened to the Anambra experience, where the names of those that began with alphabets O-Z could not be found.

Another show of shame is the noticeable skill deficiency displayed by the so called INEC officials. We observed that they most times fidget with the equipment, without readily knowing what to press or how to manipulate them. They even vent their frustration on the innocent citizens. Most times, they would ask impending registrants to wait for hours before they could be registered, if at all. The result of such endless wait is impatience and agitation.

Meanwhile, some politicians in Ikole-Ekiti on Thursday embarked on house-to-house sensitisation of residents, as the continuous voter registration entered its second day.

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Ekiti: APC knocks INEC for poor voter registration