Many residents of Abuja have accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of making it difficult for would-be voters to register for the Continuous Voters Card (CVR).

On Tuesday in Abuja, the residents claimed they left their homes as early as 4:00 a.m. to be registered only for “INEC to announce they were not working today.”

Emmanuel Ogbon, a youth, said he got to the INEC office at about 5:00 a.m. and was given a book to write his name.

“We wrote our names, and they asked us to join the queue, which we did. They later said that their machines were not on the ground, that they would have to go and get them,” Mr Ogbon said.

Another resident, Emmanuel Ibrahim, accused INEC of intentionally making it difficult for them to be registered to get their PVCs.

“They are intentionally frustrating us. They have the machines. We saw them,” Mr Ibrahim insisted. “The crowd was there, and the machines were there.”

Chukwu Godswill also mentioned that he came to make corrections on his PVC but was not allowed access to the INEC office.

“We got here this morning, and they said that their machines are not working. My question is must we suffer like this?” Mr Godswill said.

Olawale Rufai, another resident, disclosed that the PVC process was taking too much time, and that INEC staff repeatedly told them to come the next day.

“It has been ‘come back today’, ‘come back tomorrow’. At the end of this month, the CVR process will come to an end,” lamented Mr Rufai.

However, INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner Yahaya Bello claimed that people who had no business with the CVR process stormed the office to cause a commotion.

“We attend to more than 750 people in a day, and up to 200 people are banging on our door that they want PVC. They are not ready for PVC. I don’t know what they are looking for,” said Mr Bello. “Certainly, these people are not here for PVC. They are here to cause commotion unnecessarily in order to steal from people.” 

(NAN)