The Independent National Electoral Commission began the Continuous Voter Registration exercise in Edo State on Monday.
The goal of the exercise is to register potential voters before the September 21 Edo governorship election.
He also said that the CVR and the PVC collection would take place over the course of ten days, from May 27, 2024, to June 5, 2024, every day from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., including weekends.
This is in spite of Jarret Tenebe, the All Progressives Congress’s state acting chairman, calling on Friday to halt the exercise because it had damaged the party’s secretariat and supplies and equipment intended for CVR.
In response to the call, Timidi Wariowei, the head of Voters Education and Publicity for the Edo INEC, stated that it is unjust to make such a claim against the election umpire.
Tenebe stated that the purpose of the May 16 stakeholders’ meeting at the INEC office in Benin was to address relevant matters, emphasizing that it was improper to level such an accusation at the commission’s door.
The continuous voter registration (CVR) exercise in the local governments of Oredo, Egor, and Ikpoba-Okha revealed that PVC collection was also taking place concurrently with the CVR exercise.
Speaking at the Ikpoba-Okha registration area, the INEC National Commissioner in charge of Edo, Delta and Cross River, Rhoda Gumus, expressed satisfaction with the exercise while urging the registrants to be patient, adding that they will all be registered.
Gumus said, “We have been to Oredo and we are here at the Ikpoba-Okha registration area which we are using as our state head office registration centre because of the flood disaster that happened at our head office on Friday.
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“We are in touch with other registration areas within and outside Benin and the exercise is going on smoothly. As you can see, we have registered some people and others are still waiting. The process just started today. It is impressive and commendable, ” she said.
The state Resident Electoral Commissioner, Anugbum Onuoha said that INEC was well prepared for the exercise, adding that the flood disaster that destroyed some of the commission’s equipment could not stop the exercise.
Onuoha said, ” We thank God for the enablement to begin this exercise, having in mind the flood disaster that destroyed some of our equipment on Friday. Due to the flood disaster, we moved our head office registration area to the INEC office at Ikpoba-Okha local government.
“We are here and witnessing a large turnout of people who are here as either new registrants or to transfer their registration or for PVC collection. INEC is prepared for this exercise and nothing will make us fail. People expected us to discontinue the exercise but we were prepared even before the flood disaster happened.
“Yes, we had some initial network problems but it has been resolved and the exercise is going on smoothly and by the grace of God, the exercise will be successful.”
In a statement released on Sunday, Jarret Tenebe, the All Progressives Congress’s state acting chairman, urged INEC to call off the exercise because it had damaged its secretariat as well as supplies and equipment intended for CVR.
At a press conference in Benin on Friday, the All Progressives Congress (APC) claimed that the PDP was manipulating the CVR with the help of INEC and the People’s Democratic Party.
The party added that the CVR’s manipulation marked the start of efforts to rig the results in the PDP’s favor.
