Ostensibly to
ensure that all eligible voters register in the ongoing registration
exercise, the Abia State government has declared today as work-free day
for all its civil servants. In the same vein, all markets in the state
would also not open for business next Tuesday to allow traders to
register.
The state
commissioner of information and strategy, A.C.B. Agbazuere, who
disclosed this during the post executive council meeting press briefing
at the Government House in Umuahia, also said any public servant that
did not register for a voters card would not be paid their January 2011
salary.
“The public holiday
was part of government’s mobilisation strategy to ensure that everybody
was given the opportunity to register without having an excuse,” Mr.
Agbazuere said.
He said that the
task of enlightening the public on the importance of the voter
registration should not be the exclusive duty of the government and its
agencies, but all stakeholders, to enable people vote for the leaders
of their choice in the April elections and subsequent ones.
Visits to the
various registration centres showed a remarkable enthusiasm by
potential voters to register, as long queues were noticed in all the
polling booths visited and people waited patiently to be registered.
The initial hiccups
in the exercise appear to have gradually eased out, giving way to
faster registration, as it took an average of seven minutes to complete
the registration of one person in most of the centres monitored
yesterday.
At Umuafor village
hall, in Obingwa local government area, where about 14 persons were
registered on Tuesday and 15 the next day because of the problems of
the Direct Data Capture machines, about 40 had registered at 12 noon
yesterday when NEXT visited the unit.
Improved registration
It was the same
report of improved performance at Umuokahia, Anwa/Amaolewe, and
Umunwokoma units where those who had written down their names and left
to come back much later on came to see that those who waited had long
been registered.
The Registration
Officers in the units said the improvements were as a result of the
upgrading of the softwares they were using, and expressed optimism that
at that rate they might meet the deadline given by INEC for the
exercises.
On the fate of
those who were registered without their fingerprints captured, they
said that INEC was aware of it and that their registration was valid,
and advised those involved not to panic or go for another registration
as it would amount to double registration which would be rejected by
the computer.
The commissioner
revealed that the government has approved the return of 22 secondary
schools taken over by the military government in the early 1970s to
their rightful owners. The return of the schools, which did not include
primary schools, would be in phases and he urged those whose own were
not included in the current batch to exercise patience.
“The decision was
the outcome of a committee set up by the government to look into the
matter, which has been a contending issue as Christian groups have been
demanding for the release of their schools,” he said.
Mr. Agbazuere said the owners of the released schools would be
expected to meet some conditions before the schools are finally handed
to them, adding that those who cannot meet the conditions might forfeit
the release.
