No fewer than 2,942 persons have been added to registered voters in Ondo State through transfer of Permanent Voter Card (PVC).
The new Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state, Mutiu Agboke, gave the figure during his maiden stakeholders’ meeting in Akure, the state capital.
Giving the breakdown, Agboke explained that a total of 1,112 PVCs have been recorded through inter-state transfer, while 1,830 was recorded through intra-state transfer.
Besides, the Commission said it has registered 20, 204 voters in the ongoing nationwide Continuous Voters’ Registration (CRV).
Agboke also disclosed that the commission had distributed 2, 966 PVCs to registered voters across the 18 Local Government Areas of the state.
“We have also recorded 1,669 for the defaced PVCs and a total of 1, 223 for the lost and misplaced ones”, he said.
The REC noted that the the importance of the ongoing voters’ registration was to serve as bedrock for the conduct of credible elections.
According to the Ondo REC, his creed in the INEC office of the state was to conduct a free, credible and transparent elections in order to sustain the mandate of the commission.
He stressed that the mission of the commission was to serve as an independent and effective election.
Agboke reiterated INEC readiness to conduct free and fair elections to sustained the Nigeria’s democracy.
He said the commission will continue to engage the various stakeholders which included the civil society organisations, political parties, media, security agencies and both the religious and traditional leaders in the electoral process of the state.
“Without mincing words, the commission will expect nothing less than your passionate and resolute commitment to support the commission in carrying out her onerous tasks of enthroning sound democratic governance and progressives nation building”, he added.
He reiterated that the commission has created six additional centres in the state to minimize the hardship faced by eligible registrants and to decongest the registration centres in some areas of the state.
The various stakeholders who spoke at the public event called on the INEC to decentralized the centres for the ongoing Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) exercise.
Many of them who took turns to talked said decentralizing the centres would help those in the rural and local areas to actively participate in the exercise and have easy access to networking.
Fatai Adams, Chairman of the Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC) said they would continue to support the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in its quest to ensure credible elections.
Mr. Adams also asked the commission to play a transparency and open policy with all the political parties in the state.
“All political parties in the state should be given equal treatment and a free level playing ground in the electoral system.
“I will advise the electoral commission to remain an unbiased umpire and refused to be arm twist mostly by the ruling political party in the state” he said.
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