Officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC are frustrating the registration of Permanent Voter’s Card, PVC, in the South East, residents say.
They also accused staff of the commission of demanding between N1500 to N5000 before they could be registered.
A resident of Enugu, Abuchi Omeka told StandardObservers that the commission has a few staff attending to thousands of persons that have gone to register in Enugu North Local Government Area, adding that due to the crowd, the officials are demanding bribes from people before registering them.
He said that he has gone to office thrice and has yet to register, adding that the situation has made many persons resign to fate and decide not to bother voting.
Another resident of Enugu South, Uchechi Umeh, said that staff of the commission in the LGA regularly demand bribes before effecting registration.
She stressed that despite the thousands that come to the INEC registration centre in the LGA daily, only a few persons are attended to daily and they most of the time pay in order to be registered.
She said the LGA has only one machine and might not register up to 1000 persons till the end of the exercise.
Chidi Uwaeme told StandardObservers that the situation is the same in Owerri North. According to him, a few staff are on ground to register thousands that turn up daily.
He said that the situation is frustrating are is equally killing the zeal of people who want to register to vote.
An attempt to get clarifications from Festus Okoye, INEC’s Commissioner for Voter Education was not successful as he did not respond to several calls and text messages to his phone.
