Group faults INEC’s voter card registration exercise in Kano

From Mustapha Adamu, Kano

A coalition of civil societies under the auspices of Kano Civil Society Forum (KCSF), has faulted the distribution exercise of Permanent Voter Card (PVC) and Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise being conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Kano State.

The group claimed that the electoral body should account for the whopping 2,108,443 that are missing, out of the 4,864,395 voter cards registered in the state in 2010.

It also claimed to have gathered cases of alleged burnt voter cards data of about 1872 out of 8,074 polling units across the state, adding that the personnel and working materials for the CVR has been insufficient.

This was contained in a statement, signed by the group’s chairman, Bala Abdullahi Gaduwama and issued to journalists in Kano yesterday.

The statement reads in part “The KCSF has monitored the PVC and CVR exercises and observed that, of the verified and authenticated figure of 4,864,395 registered voters as at 2010, only 2,755,952 were said to have been brought to Kano State. Therefore, we are waiting for the INEC to account for the remaining 2,108,443 PVCs.” The statement said.

It added that “The magnitude of reported cases of alleged burnt data is alarming. Out of 8,074 polling units in the state, 1872 were allegedly burnt. We also observed the numerous cases of absenteeism and late arrival of the INEC staff at many PVC and CVR centres throughout the state. And also the time allocated for the both exercise was inadequate.”

The group also lamented that inadequacy of security personnel has created series of reported violence, chaos and rowdy crowd at the registration centres across the state, adding that the INEC staff arrived the centres late and close earlier than the stipulated time.