Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Kehinde Bamigbetan, has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to provide more registration machines and personnel to end the long queues at its registration centres.
Addressing members of a political group, The Mandate Movement, at a special meeting to pray and prepare members for the Sallah festival at his Ejigbo, Lagos home, Bamigbetan said thousands of enthusiastic residents the group mobilised to register were discouraged by the frustration they encountered at the registration centres.
The commissioner noted that the frustration was avoidable as more machines and personnel could be deployed to meet the surge that the advocacy for registration has created.
He said: “If INEC lacks the funds to purchase more machines, it should seek aid from state and federal agencies which appreciate the importance of this civic responsibility.
“The members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) can be mobilised as ad hoc workers. I am appealing to INEC to think outside the box. A situation in which two machines are serving thousands of willing registrants in Ejigbo is certainly not advisable.”
Bamigbetan advised INEC to use the over 4,000 community development associations in Lagos State to distribute millions of PVCs in its possession.