By Peter Duru, Makurdi

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, office in Makurdi was Sunday, besieged by prospective registrants who thronged the office to beat the July 31 deadline to get registered for their Permanent Voter Cards, PVCs.

The registrants who were mostly youths defied Sunday’s intermittent downpour to ensure that they got registered before the close of registration.

Some of them who narrated their ordeal in the last few days in order to get registered disclosed they had on several occasions visited the office to be registered but were unsuccessful.

They however expressed joy that the officials of INEC were doing their best to ensure that every prospective registrant that visited the office had their details captured appropriately.

21 years old Samuel Odihi who said he got to the office at about 1pm after Sunday church service, said it was his first time at the office and commended the officials for doing a diligent work.

“INEC official are trying to ensure that everyone inside the premises are registered and that is commendable. But I must say that the crowd is much. You know that we like last minute rush in this country that is why we this crowd but they have assured that they will register everyone until their platform is shutdown,” he said.

On her part, 32 years old Mrs. Charity Agbo who claimed that was also visiting the office for the first time expressed delight that it took her about three hours to get her registration done because the officials ensured orderliness in the process.

According to Mrs. Agbo, “I came here at about 3pm and at 6pm I was done with my registration despite the crowd. I must commend the officials in charge because they are patiently attending to everyone and you can see that everything is orderly. That is why we are having a lot of the people registered despite the crowd. And the officials have promised to have everyone within the premises registered today (Sunday).

“I am happy that I have registered because before now I never showed interest in voting but this time I want to vote and elect those I want to lead the country.”

Also, Terseer Him who said he got to the office as early as 9am stressed that he had visited the office the day before but could not register because of the crowd that besieged the office. He expressed hope that he would beat the deadline to get registered. “The process is smooth and I hope I will be registered because I want to vote in the coming election.”

As for Samuel Karnenge, he had visited the office last Wednesday but had to shelve his registration because of the crowd. “The crowd was unimaginable that was why I could not register but I came back today (Sunday) the last day because I want to ensure that I get my PVC in order to vote in the coming election.”

Contacted the Public Relations Officer of INEC in Benue state, Mr. Andyer Terkaa who expressed satisfaction with the process in the state disclosed that before now the machines that were deployed for the exercise were programmed to shutdown at 7pm.

He said, “the exercise is going smoothly but I cannot tell if the registration will go on till midnight as the registrants are hoping because those machines are programmed in a manner that when they get to a point they will themselves down. Before now it shutdown at 7pm but I don’t know if this time it will stay till midnight.

“General I am impressed with the process, we had expected that people will do their registration before the last day. Our last minute rush in the country has been a problem. If not before now much people were not coming to register but after the court ruling the people started rushing to the office to get registered but generally I must say that I am impressed with the exercise.”