By SIMON EBEGBULEM & GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE, BENIN
BENIN—AS the two-week long nationwide voter registration entered its seventh-day, yesterday, prominent Nigerians including Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, have called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to immediately rectify the logistics problems  confronting the exercise.

Gov. Oshiomhole, however,  urged the people of the state to be vigilante and  check the activities of politicians who may want to import “foreigners” to come and register in their areas with a view to using them during the general elections.

Though the governor commended INEC for deploying a Direct Data Capture (DDC), machine to most polling units, he lamented that : “there are still many wards that are yet to receive any machine, like in Owan, Uhumnwonde. By tomorrow, the exercise will be one week old and machines have not arrived in some of the local government areas and some of the wards.

“There is no clear evidence that there is a particular order of deploying the machines. It does not follow alphabetical order; it does not follow any serial number.

‘’It does appear that someone is arbitrarily deploying machines on the basis of criteria that is not too clear to me. But there is no part, every ward is supposed to have a machine and right now that is not the case. We have been in touch with the Resident Electoral Commissioner who has told us they are expecting more machines.

“What is now not clear to me is that if INEC did not produce machines in some areas one week into the exercise, can they insist that those areas where they did not provide machines that the exercise must end on the given day.

‘’I think that is an issue we need to explore because INEC cannot eat its cake and have it. They cannot fail to provide machines and now keep to deadline,” he stated.

Oshiomhole added that “there are still a number of logistic problems. But, for me what I found very exciting is that people are ready to vote. I think that the level of voter consciousness is very high and that for me is commendable.”