Nigerians who missed yesterday’s deadline for the Continuous Voters Registration have pleaded with the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to extend the process.
Several registration locations were packed on Sunday, July 31, 2022, by anxious Nigerians trying to beat the deadline set by the electoral authority on June 25.
Clariform recalls that INEC had extended the application period from June 30 to July 31 in 2022 to allow eligible Nigerians to do so in advance of the general elections in 2023.
However, despite the extension of the service to churches and other places in a bid to aid the registration, many Nigerians are yet to get registered.
Clariform correspondents who monitored some locations in Lagos on Sunday observed some intending registrants who were furious and screaming that there were conspiracies to deny some Nigerians the right to vote when we visited some centers in Lagos on Sunday.
An irate PVC applicant claimed he had been attempting to register since Monday.
He said:
“I think they just don’t want us to vote. Look at the people that are going to be denied the opportunity to participate in the election. What is wrong in this country?”
“If you look around, you will notice that most of us here that have been here since 3am this morning are youths. They are afraid of the revolution that is coming and that is why they are deliberately pushing us away”.
According to him, the only language the President Mummadu Buhari’s government understands is protest, saying:
“We must hit the street to demand the extension of the exercise. It is our right to vote and nobody should violate that right”.
Also, while speaking to a local media, President General of the Coalition of South East Youth Leaders, COSEYL, Goodluck Ibem lamented how several Southeast residents were unable to register during the exercise.
In his words:
“The 2022 voters’ registration exercise looks like a calculated attempt by some politicians to deny the people of Southeast the opportunity of registering for their voter’s card”.
According to him, the Southeast was deliberately deprived of adequate equipment for the exercise, alleging that the situation is different in parts of the North.
He continued:
“In the North, we are very aware that the INEC provided sufficient and adequate registration materials for the exercise”
Similarly, an activist, Adetunji Abiola told the media that the failure of the electoral body to extend the registration exercise may cause mass protest across the country.
Adetunji stated:
“Now that Nigerian youths want to fully participate in elections for the first time, we have been denied the opportunity to do that. I can tell you that over a million Nigerian youths are going to be disenfranchised if we don’t act on time.”
“We give this government at least a week to reopen the INEC portal for more registration or they may force us to the street so that the international community can come to our aid”.
Recall that the INEC National Commissioner, Voter Education and Publicity, Barr. Festus Okoye had in a chat with journalists in Awka, Anambra State capital on Saturday, ruled out the possibility of extending the exercise.
