• Okigwe council has least registered voters with 114

From George Onyejiuwa, Owerri

The Imo State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Prof Sylvia Agu has said that there is an improvement in the on-going new voter’s registration in the state. She said state now assumes 16th position across the the country.

She disclosed that Okigwe Council has the least numbers of new voters in the current exercise.

Speaking at a stakeholders’ meeting recently in Owerri, she disclosed that there has been a marked improvement in the on-going registration of new voters in the state.

She further disclosed that before now, Imo State was the least in the South East, but noted that today it is 16th across the nation in the ongoing voters registration.

“We are really improving in the ongoing voters’ registration compared to the last time. We came last in the entire South East, but now, we are the 16th in the country. Our target is to be the first and we are working hard to achieve it by not relenting in our sensitisation campaign.

“This is why we convened this meeting with all stakeholders in the state to encourage the people to come and register. We have also provided them with the data for them to go back to their various communities to sensitise them. Right now, we have 17,129 new voters. In Orsu council, we have not been able to carry out the exercise because of the security issues.”

Prof Agu said that the commission has continued its sensitise the people on the importance of voter’s registration on its radio programs.

However, some of the stakeholders who spoke at the meeting called on the INEC to decentralise the registration, saying that most prospective voters find it difficult to go to their various local government councils headquarters to register because of lack of resources.

They also requested for additional machines, stressing that the two registration machines at the local government offices of the electoral commissions were  not enough.