The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has registered 54.9 million prospective voters nationwide – as of last Monday. Its projection is that the number of would-be voters will exceed 62 million by the close of the exercise tomorrow.

INEC chairman Prof. Attahiru Jega’s spokesman Kayode Idowu, who gave the figure in a statement yesterday, said the registration was going on as projected.

"About 54.9 million people had been registered nationwide as at Monday, January 31, 2010 by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the on-going voter registration exercise.

"With barely two days to the end of the seven-day extension, the daily average nationwide has lowered to 3.2million, as against about 4.3million per day a week earlier. It is expected that the daily average will decline even furthermore as people get registered.

"Going by the present level and pace of registration, it is projected that no fewer than 62million people will be registered by the close of the registration on Saturday, February 5, 2010," Idowu said.

He, however, did not release the state-by-state breakdown.

In Enugu, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Dr. Josiah Uwazuruonye, announced that no fewer than one million eligible voters had been registered.

Dr Uwazuruonye told NAN on Wednesday that the commission was ready to register even more people to ensure a credible register.

Uwazuruonye said the commission spent a lot of money trying to make the registration successful and would do more if need be.

"We supply about 30 packets of ink to each of the 17 local government areas daily.

"Nigeria is a country where many people complain of one thing or the other, but we will ensure that people do not lay a lot of complaints by providing materials to every centre," he said.

The voter registration suffered another hitch yesterday in Lagos, following the shortage of ink and ECIA forms used in printing cards.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the areas affected by the shortage include the densely populated Alimoso, Ayobo-Ipaja and Oke-Odo council areas.

The ECIA form is used for manual registration of eligible voters while the ink is used for thumb printing before registered voters are issued with their cards.

A corps member, Mr Emmanuel Samuel, told NAN that INEC only provided five copies of the ECIA forms at the centre for the additional one week for the exercise, which he described as inadequate.

"What this means is that we are not able to give out the temporary voter cards to people that we have registered.

"We are now doing it on a first come, first served basis because we still have over 200 people who have been duly registered but they will not be able to collect their cards because of this problem,’’ he said.

Prince Bisi Yusuf, Chairman, Ayobo-Ipaja Local Council Development Area, said the hitches had not been fully addressed in the area, saying only 35 per cent of eligible voters in the area had been registered.

"The shortage of materials has hampered the registration in this area. We have provided inks to some of the centres, but we cannot provide the ECIA forms," he said.

In Abuja, the problems associated with the slow processing capacities of Direct Data Capture machines have refused to go away. Housewives, youths and other prospective voters in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) now do vigil at registration centres.

Prospective voters go to registration centres in their area at midnight, to begin registering their names in notebooks or sheets of paper that registration officials use to allot serial numbers between 8 and 9a.m., shortly before registration begins.

The number given by the officials determines the placement of those queuing to register while those who fail to arrive in time lose their chance.

The practice is common at registration centres in Wuse and Garki areas within the city and in satellite towns, such as Lugbe and Kubwa.

Ma_J_Blige:

Are you certain these your evidences will win you a case in court?

Ma_J_Blige:

everything points to doubt without any concrete evidence as is usual in Nigeria.

Ma_J_Blige:

Are you certain these your evidences will win you a case in court?

Ma_J_Blige:

Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do. BF