From Gyang Bere, Jos
The Resident Electoral Commissioner in Plateau State, Dr Oliver Tersoo Agundu, has assured Plateau residents of the determination of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to purge the voters’ register of underage voters and illegal immigrants.
He noted that the commission will work towards conducting free, fair, credible and acceptable elections in 2023.
Dr Agundu disclosed this on Monday in Jos during an interface with the media community in Plateau State.
“We have just concluded the preliminary display of the Voters Registers for complaints and objections to enable the Commission to clean up the Register as we anticipate having a credible and dependable Register for the next year’s general elections.
“At the moment such complaints and objections have been received band complied to onward transmission to the national headquarters for commencement of the clean-up exercise. Let me be clear that the commission is committed to the purging the voters’ register of the under-age, illegal immigrants and all categories of persons not constitutionally permitted by our laws to vote and be voted for.”
Agundu clarified that the commission has received a complaint about a reasonable number of underage voters in the Voter register and said the complaint would be forwarded to the headquarters for urgent action.
He lamented that a huge number of persons who participated in the voters’ registration in the state have not come out to pick their cards and said the Commission has received another batch of 362,465 PVCs waiting for collection.
“The response of the public towards the collection of PVCs is generally very poor. But with our renewed commitment to advocacy and campaigns in this regard, there is a remarkable improvement. More effort need to be done in this regard so that people can come forward and collect their PVCs and get ready for voting the candidates of their choice next year.”
He explained that the Commission’s headquarters had announced the commencement of the collection of the PVCs from Monday, December 12, 2022, to Monday, January 23, 2023, at the headquarters of 774 local government areas.
Agundu added that the PVCs collections will be devolved to 8,809 registrations Areas/wards from Friday 6 to Sunday, January 15, 2023, and urged all prospective voters to come out and collect their PVCs.
He reiterated the commitment of the Commission to use BVAs for the 2023 general elections and said the BVAs meant for the Plateau election will be received this week.