Orientation Agency urged to expedite action on voter education

A socio-political group, Southern Nigeria Peoples Mandate (SNPM), has urged the National Orientation Agency (NOA) to expedite action on voter education and enlightenment nationwide.

The President of SNPM, Mr Augustine Chukwudum, made the plea in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Enugu on Wednesday.

Chukwudum said that voter education and enlightenment had become necessary in order to get the electorate properly informed about ongoing political developments and the need to get involved.

“We also call on NOA to start educating Nigerians on the need to have their voter’s card, which is the power they have in electing the government of their choice come 2019 general elections,’’ he said.

Chukwudum noted that the group was worried by over 10 million uncollected Permanent Voter’s Cards (PVCs).

“SNPM is calling on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to move to all polling units across the nation to distribute the PVCs to Nigerians, who have not collected their cards.

“Everybody knows that voter’s registration used to be done at polling units; not local government headquarters as introduced by the current INEC,’’ he said.

According to him, distributing the uncollected PVCs through the polling units across the country will ensure that many people will not be disenfranchised.

“There is the need to engage more workers to ensure that the process is faster than it is now,’’ he said.