From Paul Osuyi, Asaba
It was a carnival of sorts on Sunday at the Delta State head office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Asaba as the commission closed the Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) across the country.
With music blaring from a DJ stand, prospective registrants patiently waited to be registered by the officials.
Senior Special Assistant to Governor Ifeanyi Okowa on Talent Development, Ogusbaba Akpobome Ogude who was one of the Masters of Ceremony, said his office partnered with INEC to keep prospective registrants entertained.
Ogude said the idea was to make the exercise more interesting so that those who came may not get frustrated and abandon the registration half way.
Also, Head of Voter Education and publicity of INEC in Delta State, Bukola Ojeme said the idea of providing entertainment was to eliminate areas of friction between registration officers and prospective registrants.
Ojeme said the carnival started on Saturday, adding that since it started, the commission had experience a smooth exercise unlike in previous days when there used to altercation.
“Most of the time, you have tempers flaring every now and then, even between the registrants themselves.
So, we thought in these last few days, let us make fun for them a sort of. Let us try and bring in entertainment, and what it has done for us since yesterday (Saturday) is that we have less tension, people are relaxed, they listen to music, some participated in dance and comedy competition and all that. It’s be fun really
“And that has helped us to better organise them because the tension was really so high that you tell someone stand here and he will go and stand on the other side.
“But now we have something that would make them relaxed and be patient with us,” he stated.
Meanwhile, a cross section of residents have again appealed to INEC to further extend the deadline for registration
Some of the respondents complained about the slow pace of registration, saying that there were no sufficient machines to capture the overwhelming number of prospective registrants within the period.
But Ojeme ruled out the possibility of any further extension, saying that INEC needed time to engage in interrogation and screening of those already registered with a view to coming up with valid and invalid registration as well as printing of Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs).