By Daniel Eteghe
Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola of Lagos State yesterday appealed to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), headed by Professor Attahiru Jega to put in more effort in ensuring that all eligible Nigerians undergo the voters registration exercise.

Speaking to aviation correspondents at the Presidential Wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport Lagos while assessing the level of the exercise within the last five days, Governor Fashola affirmed that the voters registration exercise has not been going on smoothly, adding that since the registration began, there had been a lot of hitches and complaints from many Nigerians from different quarters.

“INEC has to do more to impress me and this is based on the daily complaint that we  are getting, large areas of densely populated people don’t have machines. Mushin, Ikorodu, Alimosho, Ayobo, Ajegunle, particularly many of the new estates that are springing up in Ojokoro, Ifako Ijaye, Ibeju-Lekki and places  where we have built houses. They are not even identified to create polling units there” he stressed.

According to him, “We are collating and  tabulating those complaints. In some places like Coker Aguda, 8 machines broke down; they have taken them away and they haven’t brought them back, in ward D and E in Badagry, they are having problems with 11 machines. You see, the problem is cross cutting and when you  look at it, if we really want free and fair elections, we can’t disenfranchise people”.

He further noted that there was also a problem of inconsistent policy in INEC stressing that in some places, some reports came in that some people were being issued with duplicate copies of the print out. “What is happening to the  original”, he asked.

“These are issues that INEC must also speak on so that there are consistent policies and the citizens are aware. If citizens have information, they will be emboldened to participate in the process and ask legitimate questions and also insist on their rights. If they are entitled to have the original copies at all cost, then they will demand  and take it and will not settle for a duplicate” he added.

Commenting on the extension of the voters registration, Governor Fashola said” Clearly, the case for an extension is already made by the  fact that if you plan to do an exercise for 14 or 15 days and nothing happened on the first day, there were problems on the second day, on the third day, you are trying to get it right, all of the machines are not yet in place, clearly, it means that what was planned for 15 days has been done in  less and even with what is going on now at day 5 or 6, we are not yet at a 100 percent or even what you can say at 99  percent compliant.

“So, clearly, if we want free and fair  election where people have an opportunity to participate, the case has been made from the beginning”, he noted.