The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC says registration of new voters in Gombe State has recorded 202 838 people as of July 25, 2022.
The Public Affairs Officer of INEC in Gombe State, Mr. Moherret Bigun, said that transfers and replacement of lost or damaged PVCs and those who updated their information had also been in their thousands.
He said over 23,000 PVCs for those who did fresh registration in 2021 were delivered in the state in April and that about 9,000 PVCs for those who did transfers or information updates in 2021 were received in June this year.
Out of these numbers, Mr. Bigun said 7 054 people had collected their PVCs by Tuesday, July 26, 2022, bringing the total collection of PVCs in Gombe State to 9 292.
According to Mr. Bigun, 2 106 people have collected their PVCs out of the number of those who registered from 2011 to 2014, and 2017 to 2018.
He said with the announcement of the dateline for the suspension of the CVR, various registration centres in the state had been recording a high turnout of voters.
According to him, the conduct of the registration is going well at the centres in the LGAs, the state office, and other rotational centres in the LGAs of Gombe State.
Mr. Bigun, has, however, said INEC was doing its best to meet up with the huge demand by increasing the number of workers and extending the time of registration to 7 pm.
“As of yesterday, we had four registration devices stationed within the state office. Today, we have six to carter for the huge crowd we are having, and if need be, the Operations Department is monitoring the traffic at the different centres.
“If there’s any centre where the traffic is less or with no registrants, they will quickly deploy to the state office so that we can mop up,” said Mr. Bigun.
He appealed to Nigerians not to wait till the dying minutes before getting registered, saying that may deny them the opportunity to achieve some feats in life.
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“It’s the Last Minutes Rush Syndrome; Nigerians don’t enjoy doing things on time. They want to wait till the last minute, which is not always the best.
“Because sometimes these Registration Centres are empty. Just as I have said. After June 30, this place was almost empty. We need a change of attitude, actually. This last minutes rush can never bring out the best for us,” said Mr. Bigun.
He re-echoed the INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmud Yakubu’s assurances that all those who registered and are registering would get their Permanent Voter’s Card before the 2023 Elections.
The INEC Public Affairs Officer in Gombe allay the fears of those who feel their PVCs will not be ready before the 2023 election, assuring every eligible voter that they will collect their PCV before the election days.
He said that was why INEC insisted on suspending the Continuous Voter Registration, enabling the commission process, and printing the CVRs on time before the elections in 2023.
S.O
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