Aanu Balogun
A youth-oriented group, Ekiti Freedom Movement EFM on Tuesday staged a peaceful protest to appeal to the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC for an extension of the registration for voter’s card.
The Protest kickstarted from the state Pavilion to INEC headquarters,new Iyin road in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital.
The EFM Coordinator, Dr Olowoyo Sikiru, said the protest was geared towards interacting with INEC for an extension of voter’s card registration because a lot of citizens are still yet to register, which would hinder them to exercise their right.
“It has been realised that most of the people are yet to register and we are not saying this is the fault of the INEC because we quite understand that INEC has been on ground, calling on people to register which some people have registered online.
“However, the window for the registration has closed, while people that have done the online registration were unable to complete the rest of the registration. Our movement has been charging people to register. If is extended for 2 weeks, it will avail more people to vote.
“Hence, the reason for the passionate appeal to INEC to open the window of registration again, in order to ensure that our people are not disenfranchised.”
INEC expressed their opinion that they were not responsible for their inability to register because a year window was given to register for the voter’s card but citizens did not key into it on time.
“When the window was opened, sometimes, just one person showed up for the registration which is not supposed to so.”
INEC thereby appealed to the citizens to always be time conscious and obey the terms and conditions of the registration.
“According to the constitution, registration should end 3 months to election, so people who have registered can get their PVC”.
The INEC Head of Voter Education and Publicity in Ekiti. Femi Akinbiyi urged the committee of the Ekiti Freedom Movement (EFM) to write a protest letter, addressing it to them so it can be forwarded to Abuja which is the appropriate quarter, so their complaints can be formal and attended to in line with constitution.
In that regard, Dr Olowoyo admomished all citizens to be a part of the elections by doing all that need to be done on time.
“If you want to change the society and impact positively on our society, there is need for everyone to participate in all activities that can actually bring such a thing. Elections will always come because we are practising democracy, and elections do count.
“The electoral law that has just been passed few weeks ago is an improvement on our electoral system. People will always be determinants on who to govern them. So, I crave all people to come out in mass and exercise their rights.”