Kogi State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) Mr. Olusegun Agbaje said 433,488 cards representing 36.44 per cent of the 1,189,265 Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) for the state are yet to be collected by registered voters.
Mr. Agbaje disclosed this when members of the Justice, Development and Peace Commission (JDPC) of the Catholic Diocese of Lokoja paid him an advocacy visit aimed at partnership for hitch-free 2015 general elections in the state, as he urged those who had not collected to do so from the local government areas they registered.
The visit was also intended to project the JDPC programme on Good Governance and Gender Action for Peoples’ Development, sponsored by Catholic Agency for Overseas Development through the Catholic Caritas Foundation of Nigeria (CCFN).
He said that the commission would strive to attain 70 to 75 per cent distribution by January, next year, noting that 90 or 100 per cent distribution was impossible due to cases of relocations, transfer and multiple registrations.
The REC added that the commission encountered problems with distribution of cards in Ibaji and Igalamela/Odolu Local Government Areas, adding that 755,777 cards representing 63.4 % had so far been distributed in the state.
While promising credible elections come 2015, he affirmed that out of the 26 registered political parties in the country, 19 had presence in Kogi and assured that INEC would partner them and security agencies to have peaceful, free, fair and credible elections in 2015.
He charged politicians and their supporters to eschew violence and electoral malpractices, stressing that although INEC had no capacity to prosecute electoral offenders, it would not condone illegality.
He said that security agencies under the aegis of Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Electoral Security would do everything possible to curtail security threats; as the match to 2015 elections had commenced.
Earlier, the State Coordinator of JDPC, Rev. Fr Leonard Odomeja, had told the INEC Commissioner that the NGO was into civic education, election monitoring, women/youth empowerment, awareness creation, promotion of peace and security, among others.
Represented by the Programme Manager of the JDPC, Mr. Simon Enejo, Rev. Odomeja said the commission was the link between the church and the society to engender peaceful coexistence and good governance.
He said the body integrates non-Catholics and even Muslims.
Culled from The Graphic Newspapers
