Nigerians call for extension of registration

  1. Posted on Tuesday 25 January 2011 - 09:18
    Samuel
    Image of Samuel
    Samuel Okocha, AfricaNews reporter in Lagos, Nigeria
    Members of the Students Union in Nigeria's commercial capital city of Lagos marched in protest to the state's office of the Independent National Electoral Commission, demanding an extension of the ongoing voters registration exercise. The exercise is meant to provide a new voters' register of eligible Nigerians which would be used for the April general election.
    Nigeria
    The two-week registration exercise is scheduled to end Saturday 29th January. But there are complaints that the registration process is slow.

    "If it ends this Saturday millions of Lagosians would be disenfranchised,” Chairman, National Association of Nigerian Students, Lagos Axis Comrade Ogundipe Olarewanju said."Even students; virtually all schools are on session, and we have been hearing different complaints from different campuses that they don't have the DDC [Direct Data Capturing] machines."

    Olarenwaju said the machines have been malfunctioning and added the machines have not reached the number of locations they were meant to get.

    "If it goes on this way, then this election won't be free and fair. To make the election free and fair, we are hereby requesting for an extension for at least 2 to 3 weeks so that we will have more persons to register within the state," the student unionist added. "If there is no extension it means automatically it’s a form of rigging, which means all what Jega [INEC Chairman] has been telling us about free and fair election is a lie."

    INEC responds

    Reacting to the request to extend the voters registration, the Lagos State Resident Electoral Commissioner of INEC, Dr. Adekunle Ogunmola assured that INEC was doing all it could to ensure the voters registration was a success.

    ''I can tell you without any fear of contradiction that this exercise will not be concluded without capturing all eligible voters in Nigeria," Ogunmola told the protesting students. ''We now have more machines than we required, and what we are doing is that anyone that is damaged, instead of even repairing, we are changing them... please bear with us"

Latest News

  1. OPINION: Welcome to African Green Revolution24/05For the past century and a half, Africa has tried various agricultural approaches without much success.
  2. Egyptians vote in historic election23/05Egyptians began voting freely on Wednesday for the first time to pick their president in a wide open election that pits Islamists against men who serv…
  3. Africa Day 2012 - a moment for reflection and…22/0525th May is Africa Day. For many years it has been a celebration of African unity. It dates back to 1963 when the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) …
  4. South Africa's African agenda21/05The Deputy President of the Republic of South Africa, Kgalema Mothlanthe paid a rare visit to Ghana in April at the invitation of John Dramani Mahama …
  5. Women struggle to rinse hunger, poverty stains21/05Just looking at her one clearly appreciates that she is old and frail therefore in need of support for food, clothing and shelter to live comfortably …
  6. Climate Climate change affects migratory birds…21/05Changes in the climate globally have affected the movement of both migratory and resident species of birds, Nature Uganda has said.
  7. Ghana: Foreign retailers cited for currency…18/05The Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) is attributing the sharp depreciation of the Ghana cedi against major currencies to the illegal activiti…
  8. Kenya: Community radio brings succour to…18/05Korogocho, a slum in northeastern Nairobi with 100,000 inhabitants, had many of the ingredients for a political explosion similar to those that rocked…
  9. Veld fires 'flame' Zimbabwe's…16/05Over the years, Zimbabwe has experienced the scourge of veld fires destroying property worth thousands of dollars.
  10. Vanishing Lake Chad puts 30m lives at risk14/05As you approach the Lake Chad basin from Maiduguri, in north-eastern Nigeria, the evidence of despair is telling.
  11. Heavy rains cause havoc in Kenya14/05Heavy Rainfall continued to wreak havoc across the country leading to the suspension of relief food in some parts of the country as most roads in Turk…
  12. Zimbabwe: Growth points lie dormant14/05The Zimbabwean government mooted the concept of growth points in the 1980s as a means of decongesting cities and towns.
  13. Sierra Leone improves in infant mortality11/05Sierra Leone has improved in infant mortality cases according to Save the Children- World Motherhood index 2012 report. The West Africa country descri…
  14. Algerians vote in parliamentary election10/05Polls have opened in Algeria for parliamentary elections which the authorities have billed as more free and transparent than ever before.
  15. Sierra Leone: Girl 13, dedicates life to…08/05Annette Sam, now 13 was diagnosed with a hole in the heart in 2006. His father a teacher by then could not afford funds to treat the young Annette.
News archive