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From Priscilla Ediare, Ado Ekiti
Ahead of the Ekiti State governorship election scheduled to hold on June 18, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has via its portal unearthed 47,633 voters who registered twice in the recently concluded Continuous Voter Registration exercise in the state.
The commission which said the discovery was made possible with the aid of the Bimodal Voter Authentication System(BVAS) invented by INEC, noted that those found guilty of the offence have had one of their registrations struck out to prevent double voting in the coming election.
The commission’s Head of Department, Information and Communication Technology, Titilayo Oderinde, who made this known in Ado Ekiti, on Saturday, during a day training workshop organised for journalists in the state ahead of the poll, explained the importance of the BVAS application, added that with the help of ICT innovation, no voter can engage in double voting during elections.
“During the just concluded Continuous Voter Registration exercise declared by INEC for intending voters to update their registration, a total of 124, 963 persons registered in Ekiti.
“But it will marvel you that when the number was subjected to BVAS scrutiny, a total of 47,633 were discovered to have registered twice and got expunged from the register.
“Though, the commission was so lenient that one of the double registrations was struck out leaving one for the voter to exercise his franchise. It is not applicable to a gender, the offence was committed by both genders.
“But I see no reason why people should be doing this when they can approach the commission for migration of their polling units, even if they leave their environment for another location”.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner, Ekiti State, Dr. Adeniran Tella, who also addressed the participants, appealed to voters not to treat their Permanent Voter Cards(PVCs) as instruments for mere identification, saying they are to be deployed to vote on election day.
“PVCs is not designed as identification card, it is for voting. We want to do away with this voter apathy and we are starting with Ekiti election. I salute our women for participating well in registration. 71% of them had also collected their PVCs.
“We are assuring the People Living with Disabilities that their interests will be protected by the commission. They are Nigerians with inalienable rights to vote and we shall provide enabling environment for them to vote in this election, we have made adequate provision for them”.
The INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Mr. Festus Okoye, added that part of the constitutional frameworks designed for the success of any election, is freedom of press, warning that this shouldn’t be abused to prevent violence during election.
“Before journalists can monitor election in any state, he must have good knowledge of the social, political, economic, and geographical composition of that environment.
“He must also understand the security situation, because all these differ from state to state.
“They must also have a deep knowledge of the laws guiding the conduct of elections. They must know what laws permit regarding the information you dish out. Media personnel are not permitted to give out information that can mislead the populace and ignite violence on the day of election. They have to be accurate.
“In this election, we appeal to you to be neutral, non-partisan, ethical and professional in the discharge of your duties, so that we can record success together and conduct election that can be acceptable to all”, he said.
