From Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri
Worried by the rigours Nigerians go through in the ongoing voters registration exercise, Igbo youths under the aegis of the Coalition of South East Youth Leaders(COSEYL) has advised the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to provide sufficient registration equipment and as well take the registration to voting centres in south east for easy exercise.
A statement by the President General of the youth group,Goodluck Ibem on Wednesday noted that the exercise carried out at only INEC offices is too strenuous for the people willing to register.
Ibem equally has suggested that 100 computers for the exercise should be made available in each of the local governments in the zone.
He said “since the voters registration exercise commenced for the 2023 general elections, Local Government INEC offices have only been the only registration point for the exercise which have made it very difficult and a herculean task for so many Nigerians in the South East to register for their Permanent Voters Cards.
“So many Nigerians coming out to the INEC offices to register for their PVCs which is the only place you can register for the PVC can’t register due to the large number of people that came out on daily basis to register. Some people have to pay high cost of transport fares to the INEC office for over a month without been able to register for the PVC.
“The INEC office have only 2 computers for voters registration and one computer can register only 60 persons per day when we have over 700 persons on ground who came to be registered. The situation is really worrisome and something urgent must be done to address the anomaly.
Ibem also urged the INEC chairman,professor Mahmood Yakubu to extend same level of treatment on rwgistrers in south east as their northern counterpart.
“We are aware that in the North, INEC staffs move from house to house to register people for their PVCs. Why then is it different in the South East? Why must people be subjected to such strenuous and inhuman treatments because the want to register for their PVCs.
“The INEC chairman Professor Mahmood Yakubu needs to come down to South East to see for himself the suffering people go through to register for their PVCs due to insufficient number of computers and equipments for the registration exercise coupled with the long distance so many people have to trek or transport themselves in other to get to the INEC office where the registration exercise is been done.” Ibem said.