FCTA, INEC partner on voter registration
In order to fast track the on-going voters registration exercise in the FCT, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) said it will work with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to provide mobile registration teams that can reach remote areas of the territory.
The FCT Minister, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello, said this during a stakeholders meeting hosted by the FCT Administration, aimed at sensitizing key players in the exercise and ensuring that the target groups are registered.
“We called this very important stakeholders meeting because of a presentation made by the National Chairman of INEC to the Federal Executive Council on the 17th of May. During the presentation where all the council members were present, I noticed the statistics for the FCT with regards to overall number of registered voters, with regards to uncollected voters’ registration cards, as well as the three-week report regarding the exercise that commenced on the 27th of April. The report was not encouraging,” he said.
The minister reminded the stakeholders that in a democracy, the citizens’ weapon is the ability to vote.
“So, the voters’ registration exercise is a fundamental condition for every person to exercise his or her human fundamental rights to decide on who governs him or her and that is why it is very important,” he said.
He said the FCT Administration, during a meeting with the acting Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of the FCT decided that while INEC at the FCT and the national level work on all the recommendations they have collated, the FCT Administration will work with the Area Council chairmen and INEC to provide mobile teams that will be able to go to inaccessible areas of the territory.
Malam Bello lamented that the total voters’ registration figure for the FCT does not match the population of the Territory which he said is now going towards six million, adding that the high percentage of uncollected Permanent Voters’ Card (PVCs) has an implication for the society “because no matter how much you sensitize people and mobilize them to go and register, as long as they do not collect the card, the whole exercise is of no value”.