P.M. News (Lagos)
5 October 1998
Lagos — Registration of voters took off this morning on a rather mixed note as eager electorates waited for close to an hour before registration officers surface with the registration materials.
Mrs Esther Adeniyi, an official of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for Agege Local Government told P.M. News that the delay should be expected since today is the first day of the exercise.
However, inspite of this, Nigerian electorate seem to have put away their "siddon look" approach as they queued up eagerly and orderly to be registered. At Ogunwo registration, former chairman of Agege Council, Chief Enoch Ajiboso, one of the first to be registered, attributed the enthusiasm to the confidence electorates have in the current transition programme. Politicians have gone to the field mobilising people for registration. Peoples Democratic party (PDP) chairman in Agege, Alhaji S.O. Yusuf stated that he has been there since morning to witness the exercise and that he has been inpressed so far.
Reports from Owerri this morning also revealed that the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in Imo State has employed the services of town criers in a grassroots campaign meant to sensitize all the rural areas of the state about the registration. The reason for this according to a spokesman of AD in Owerri, Prof. Awuzie is the belief that "if the registration of voters fail, the entire transition programme would be a big flop."
INEC has increased the number of polling stations from 75,000 under to 111,430 and created more electoral wards to bring ballot boxes closer to voters. The voting age is set at 18.
"It is our conviction that these factors which in the past either caused general disaffection or disenfranchised many people should be eliminated from our electoral process," Akpata INEC said.
He added that INEC had put in place measures to check malpractices, such as multiple registration, which in past elections often started with the preparation of the voters' list.
"We implore all to desist from past electoral malpractices which made previous attempts at compiling a credible voters register an illusion," Akpata said.
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