CITY NEWS CVR: Stakeholders want registration centres decentralised Taxi driver robs passengers in Zuba

Some stakeholders in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have appealed to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to decentralise centres for the continuous voters’ registration (CVR) from area council offices to polling units.

Some of the stakeholders, including political parties, council bosses, Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC), civil society organisations and people living with disabilities, made this known at the flag off of the exercise in Karu yesterday.

The chairman of FCT-IPAC, Joseph Ndirang, said the six registration centres in the territory were inadequate considering the landscape and distance between communities.

He expressed fear that people in remote areas might not be covered by the exercise if nothing was done to decentralise the registration points, noting that there were communities in the territory whose residents would have to spend more than N3,000 to go for the exercise and return home.

“In AMAC, there is a village that it would take N1,000 for a person to come to his ward in Karshi and from Karshi to Karu that is another story. It is going to be extremely difficult for people to come. Let it trickle down, to at least ward level,” he said.

On his part, the Chairman of the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu Candido, said the exercise was important to the political process in the country as such efforts should be made to ensure residents were not disfranchised.

“AMAC is not just from AYA and Zuba. Around Karu, you can count villages that are about 50km to the city centre. We want every Nigerian to be part of this exercise so it needs to get to the grassroots where the people are domiciled,” he said.

He said if the exercise was taken to zone, ward or polling units, people would have easy access to collect their PVCs and then be able to exercise their franchise. A taxi driver, Chijioke Kingsley, has been arrested by the police for allegedly robbing two of his passengers at gunpoint at Gofina village in Zuba, Gwagwalada Area Council.

A statement by the FCT Police Command Public Relations Officer, DSP Anjuguri Manzah, said the suspect was arrested at about 8:30p.m. by police operatives on patrol along Anagada-Tungan-Maje axis.

He said the suspect, who was operating along with his cohorts, now at large, was apprehended while robbing two of his passengers at gunpoint.

According to the statement, the suspect’s cohort fled the scene after sighting the police patrol team, adding that they absconded with the sum of N25,000, one Lumia Windows phone, one Techno phone, ID card and an ATM card.

The statement further said efforts were on to arrest the fleeing suspects in order to recover the fire arms used for the operation including all items belonging to their victims.

It said the arrested suspect and his operational Mazda vehicle with registration number YAB426BS that was recovered at the scene had been taken to the police Special Anti-Robbery Squad for investigation.

The FCT Police Commissioner, Musa Kimo, advised residents to be vigilant while boarding taxis.