The Nation Newspaper

Tag: registration

  • Bayelsa worries over poor turnout in voter registration

    The Bayelsa State government yesterday decried poor turnout of residents in the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) being conducted at the various centres in the state by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    A statement by Office of the Special Adviser on Political Matters to the Governor said the government was not encouraged with the attitude of residents towards an exercise crucial to deepening democracy in the state and country

    The Special Adviser on Political Matters, Mr. Fyneman Wilson, who spoke to repoters in Yenagoa, urged residents to take advantage of a fresh opportunity provided by INEC to register and get their voter cards.

    Wilson said: ”Unlike other states of the federation, the turnout for the exercise in Bayelsa State is very poor and we need to encourage ourselves to do better.

    “You wil recall that in the last election, Bayelsa state was one of the states with the least number of votes owing to voter apathy and low number of registered voters in the state.

    “Its is important to note that the citizen participation in a democracy determines how the society progresses. One of such way to participate in decision-making in a democratic process is for citizens to exercise their civic responsibilities such as the right to vote and be voted for.

    “INEC has, however, provided another opportunity for the citizens of this nation and by extension, Bayelsa, but the interest is still quite low in Bayelsa state.

    “The Office of the Special Adviser on Political Matters is hereby calling on all Bayelsans and those residents in the state irrespective of their political and religion affiliation that has not yet registered and are of voting age, to make advantage of this opportunity to go to the designated centers in the state to register”.

    Restating the CVR importance, Wilson said it would help the state to increase their voting strength in the forthcoming elections.

    “Since it is one of the indices used in planning and increasing our stakes at the federal level, it is imperative for Bayelsan, especially those at the rural communities to turn out en masse to take part in the INEC registeration.

    “Finally, Bayelsans should be reminded that the clamour for change or consolidation in a democratic dispensation can only be made possible through election and election cannot be done if the voters do not participate.

    “Elections are soon coming up in 2019 and 2020 in Bayelsa State, remember, your vote is your power.”

  • Double registration: INEC under pressure to swap data, says blogger

    •Govt: allegations baseless and unfounded

    Renowned blogger, Comrade Austin Okai, has accused Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello of attempting to swap the computer used in his double voter registration saga.

    Okai, who spoke during Eid in Lokoja, called for an overhaul of INEC workers in Kogi to stem further manipulations.

    He maintained that the governor is running around to repair his image, following global condemnation of his double registration.

    His words: “The current impasse on Governor Yahaya Bello’s double registration is a pointer to the lack of confidence in INEC, both in Kogi and the headquarters, in future elections. I urge INEC to replace all card readers meant for kogi elections in the future.”

    Okai added that the investigative panel compounded the scenario with their plans to swap the laptop used for the registration.

    According to him, the data on the laptop was deleted and the Electoral Officer, Mr. Ajani, brought another for scrutiny.

    Okai challenged INEC to request for the laptops in Lokoja council and recall the HOD ICT and VOTER Registry, the accountant and Administrative Secretary, whose complicity is obvious through inducement from the government, for investigation.

    But Governor Bello, through his Director General on Media and Publicity, Kingsley Fanwo, described the allegation as characteristic of the author and his sponsors. “It is baseless and unfounded”, he said.

    His words: “If Governor Yahaya Bello is not popular, why are they jittery? The governor is not prepared for the 2019 politics yet. He has a mandate to discharge and he will work for the people until his last day in office.

    “It is unfortunate that the social media has provided a platform for such an unintelligent allegation. We do not have to react to such. Governor Yahaya Bello does not work in INEC and clear statements have been made that the governor was in Dubai on the said day.

    “INEC has not started registering people offshore and it is free to investigate any issue that affects it.

    “The governor is committed to fulfilling his obligations to the people. He is busy building roads, schools, hospitals and making agriculture the epicentre of our economic prosperity. These are the issues that can attract the attention of the governor.

    “The media should concentrate on development rather than promoting irrelevant issues. We want the media to partner us to take Kogi to new heights.”

  • ‘ANN sure of INEC registration’

    The Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN), a political association being promoted by professionals and technocrats, has assured its teeming members that it would get the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) registration to become a political party.

    The INEC last week registered five political associations following which ANN members were wondering why it was not on the list.

    But ANN’s National Coordinator, Dr. Jay Osi Samuels, said there was no cause for alarm adding that the association is on the verge of meeting all the requirements needed to be registered as a political party.

    He said the newly registered parties had been on the registration process since last year.

    Samuels said:  “Our members have nothing to worry about, we are confident of being registered as a political party. Our name, acronym and slogan have been approved and these are major steps towards registration. Those who have just been registered have been on it since last year. That was why they were first to be registered by INEC this year. Therefore, our name will soon be announced as a registered political party after all the necessary documentation has been concluded.”

    Dr. Samuels said INEC is under statutory obligation to register any association or group that meets the set criteria and urged member to continue to spread the message of “technoticianism”, which is “the ideology” of the group.

    The association also called for peaceful coexistence among the nation’s ethnic groups.

    Reacting to the ultimatum given by Arewa youth groups to Igbo to vacate the north, Dr. Samuels said while the ANN understood the ethnic emotions that often ruled the country, war mongering and mutual suspicions amongsthe nation’s ethnic groups remained an ill-wind that would blow no one any good.

    He said the party’s aim remains rallying professionals and technocrats in the country to join the political process and this is not limited to any particular region or tribe but all-inclusive.

  • INEC commissioner urges Nigerians to embrace Continuous Voters Registration

    INEC commissioner urges Nigerians to embrace Continuous Voters Registration

    THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Commissioner in charge of Lagos, Ogun and Ondo states, Dr. Adekunle Ogunmola, has reiterated the importance of the Continuous Voters Registration (CVR), saying that all eligible voters whose names are not in the voters’ register should take advantage of the opportunity provided by the commission. He said without the registration they would not be able to vote in future elections.

    Ogunmola, who made the remark during the kick off of the Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) in Surulere, Lagos said the registration applies to Nigerians who are 18 years and above, who have not registered before and those who have registered but their names are not in the voters’ register.

    He urged the eligible voters to present themselves at the commission’s offices in all local government areas between 9am and 3pm, Monday to Friday (excluding public holidays), to participate in the exercise, adding that Temporary Voters Card (TVC) will be issued to registrants at the point of the day.

    The commissioner said the CVR represents an important milestone in the commission’s mandate to consolidate democracy in the country, by delivering free, fair and credible elections.

    He said: “The primary aim of this event is to register eligible voters who have just matured into the voting age of 18 years and those who for one reason or the other could not register previously, so they can participate in the forthcoming general elections.

    “Related to this aim is the update of the voters’ register, to reflect transfers and deaths in accordance with Section 10 of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended), which requires the commission to update the Voters’ Register and make it available to every political party within 60 days after each year of registration.”

    Ogunmola said the period of the CVR is also an opportunity for those who have registered, but have not collected their Permanent Voters Card (PVC), to do so.

    He said the exercise will equally take care of other cases, such as: “A person who has registered before, but his/her name, photograph and/or fingerprints was/were not captured; this category of person must provide his/her Temporary Voter’s Card (TVC). A person who has a PVC or TVC, but his/her name is not on the register of voters”.

    The commissioner also urged eligible voters that have moved to a different location to seize the opportunity to transfer their registration.

    The procedure for the transfer of registration, he added, could be summarised in the following four steps: “The person seeking to transfer their registration should make an application to the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of the state he/she is resident in through his/her Electoral Officer; a Registration Area Officer (RAO) will issue a form, Application for Transfer of a Registered Voter (ECTF), to the registered voter applying for the transfer for approval by the Resident Electoral Officer; once the REC has confirmed that the applicant is resident in the area, the application will be approved and the applicant’s details will be transferred to his/her new location; and the transfer will be accordingly effected on our server.”

    The Sole Administrator, Surulere Local Government, Hon. Sheriff Balogun, said he was happy that the area was chosen for the kick off in Lagos. He urged the people to come out and register, so that they could vote in subsequent elections.

    He said the high turn-out for the kick off suggests that the council had made adequate effort to inform the people about the importance of exercise. He added: “But, since it is a continuous exercise, we will not relent; we will continue to pass across the necessary information to the people, through relevant departments of the local government, to make that all residents of Surulere gets to know about this programme. To assist INEC, we will ensure that posters advertising this registration is displayed all over Surulere and that the leaflets are distributed to the people.

  • Council chief seeks voter registration at wards

    The Chairman of the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) Abdullahi Candido has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to take the Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) exercise to the ward level.

    Candido pleaded that a lot of his constituents cannot afford to pay their way to the CVR locations, thereby missing out on the exercise. He made the call during the flag-off of the nationwide exercise by the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission Professor Mahmud Yakubu.

    He said,” There are many people within AMAC who cannot afford to come to the Local Government office to get registered. Bringing it closer to them will ensure no one is disenfranchised.”

    The INEC chair gave the clearest indication that the commission will eventually take the registration exercise to the wards or polling units to avoid disenfranchising Nigerians who want to be a part of the process.

  • NDE begins online registration of unemployed persons

    NDE begins online registration of unemployed persons

    The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) has begun the online registration of unemployed persons.

    The purpose of the exercise is to develop a database of unemployed persons and provide scientific evidence on the character, nature and trends of unemployment.

    NDE Acting Director-General, Kunle Obayan,  represented by the Deputy Director, Information and Public Relations,Edmund Onwuliri, said in Abuja that the exercise was part of the directorate’s mandate of designing skill sets to suit various types of unemployed persons.

    He said the framework for the online registration, handled by the directorate, has been completed and ready for launch.

    “The online portal, which went live last week, is designed to capture the relevant details of every unemployed person. It will equally serve as a job exchange portal that will link job seekers and employers, he said.”

    He said there was a practical demonstration of the workings of the portal at the NDE stand at the  28th edition of the Enugu International Trade Fair, adding that the portal could be accessed on: www.jobsforall.ng.

    Onwuliri explained that the directorate saw the initiative as a bold step towards deepening the effectiveness of its employment creation strategies and critical input into the process of designing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating programmes and schemes adding that the online portal would serve as meeting point for job seekers and employers, thereby reducing the cumbersome process of recruitment among employers of skilled labour in the private and public sectors.

    In a related development, the Obayan said the NDE has, over a period of one year, trained 15,343 persons in vocational, agricultural and entrepreneurial skills.

    Speaking  at the  NDE special day  of the Enugu International Trade Fair, Obayan said: “We have reasons to rejoice in the strength of our four core programmes, namely: Vocational Skills Development (VSD), Small Scale Enterprises (SSE), Rural Employment Promotion (REP) and Special Public Works (SPW) Programmes.”

    He said the faithful implementation of the directorate‘s employment creation programmes had, to a reasonable extent, reduced the level of despair and disillusionment associated with unemployment in Nigeria.

    “The realities of economic recession and evidences of breakthroughs emanating from self-employment initiatives have reinforced our belief in the efficacy of skills acquisition training, which globally, has demystified the seemingly intractable challenges of unemployment and poverty,’’ he said.

    To further deepen the effectiveness of its employment creation strategies, according to Obayan, the NDE after completing the framework for the online registration of unemployed persons in Nigeria had commenced the actual registration of the unemployed nationwide.

    “I am glad to announce that a work-station is functional at the NDE stand at this fair from where any unemployed person can register. Other Nigerians can avail themselves of this service by logging on to www.jobsforall.ng.

    Obayan said the NDE considered this as a very critical input into its process of designing, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of all programmes and schemes.

    “Unemployed Nigerians are expected to register on the portal, which has the capacity to serve a job exchange linking employers and job seekers having fully been hosted,” he said.

  • UTME: JAMB registers 600, 000 candidates, says no extension period

    UTME: JAMB registers 600, 000 candidates, says no extension period

    The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), has so far registered 600, 000 candidates for the 2017 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) across the country.

    Dr Fabian Benjamin, Head of Public Relations JAMB, made this known on Monday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Bwari, FCT.

    He said that JAMB was not going to extend the registration period, saying that before deadline every candidate will register.

    The spokesman said that measures were on ground to ensure the regulated platform could help candidates to get registered before the end of the month and to prevent irregularities in registration.

    Benjamin observed that some applicants were seeking extension of the UTME registration deadline due to irregularities in the ongoing registration process.

    According to him, it is wrong for any person to also think that there is inadequacy in the number of centres stipulated to register candidates for the UTME.

    “We have already registered 600, 000 candidates since sales of form began March 20, how can there be inadequate centres or lack of manpower, when we have more than 400 centres.

    “There is no such delay as alleged by some candidates, the issue here is that plenty people are registering for the UTME at the same time.

    “The internet is working, if it is not working how then we arrived at the total of 600, 000 that have so far been duly registered.

    “Large numbers of applicants seeking to register for UTME go to the Banks allocated for the exercise that is why there seem to be some form of delays and irregularities.

    “Before we used three banks and now it is 15 banks because the period is short, but we are not going to extend the registration period, before deadline every candidate will register,” he said.

    JAMB spokesman told NAN that the initiative for use of the platform to register candidates for the UTME was in line with the Board’s policy to ensure standards operation.

    He, however, said that 25 persons have been arrested and handed over to the Police for illegal registration and sale of the 2017 UTME materials to candidates across the country.

    He mentioned that the suspects were arrested by a combined team of Anti-Corruption and Transparency Unit (ACTU); members of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and the NigeriaPolice Force.

  • 25 persons arrested for extortion, selling UTME registration materials

    25 persons arrested for extortion, selling UTME registration materials

    Twenty-five persons have been arrested across the country for illegally selling registration materials for the 2017 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) candidates.

    Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) RegistrarProf. Is-haq Oloyede said this at weekend.

    The culprits were apprehended by a combined team of JAMB’s Anti-Corruption and Transparency Unit (ACTU), the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and the Police, following a tip-off.

    Among the registration materials being sold by them included copies of the UTME e-Brochure and e-Syllabus.

    The agency said the e-Brochure and e-Syllabus, which were meant to be free, were being sold by the culprits as high as N800 each nationwide, while at the same time also extorting money and inflating cost of registration from candidates.

    Oloyede, in an interview with reporters in his office in Abuja, said the people that were caught are those “doing what they are not supposed to do”.

    He said: “Our quality assurance unit, particularly the Anti-Corruption and Transparency Unit had to go out to see what is happening, following reports of extortion. We were having reports that candidates are paying more than the N5,500 that is required. The perpetrators have been cautioned and are presently under surveillance.

    “For many of them that have been caught, I don’t think they will want to be caught for the second time in the future after serving the severe punishments awaiting them.

    “We keep on telling people that they are to pay just N5,500, which is N5,000 to JAMB and N500 for the book (e-Brochure and e-Syllabus) and that is all. But for the centre where they register, the owner of the centres will get a maximum of N700. We have arrested about 25 persons, all over the country. They are those who are doing what they are not supposed to do, by charging the candidates higher than expected. They will not escape justice, they will appear in court.”

    According to him, JAMB has not asked anybody to pay extra money or asked anybody to go to any business centre for the creation of profile.

    The JAMB registrar said the banks and Computer-Based Test centres had reached an agreement with JAMB that they would create the profile for the candidates.

    He said: “And whether you go to the banks, NIPOST or anywhere to buy the pin, it is part of their responsibility to create the profile for the candidates. Nobody is expected to pay more than what we have specified. But what we have found out is that many people are gullible. What we have done is that the ACTU had gone out and raided the centres. We found out that many of the centres are playing on the ignorance of the candidates. We have advertised in 10 national newspapers, yet they still allow themselves to be extorted.”

    Oloyede faulted claims by many of the candidates, who have the impression that it would be better for them to register only in JAMB-owned centres.

    “It is not true. Whether you register at the JAMB centres or in any accredited centres, there is no difference.

    “People are saying that there is poor connectivity. I don’t know what they mean by that. May be, they are using old terms. Many of the business centres, who want us to return to the old practice or those who are producing the scratch cards and want to continue extorting money from people are the ones echoing this noise and creating unnecessary problem for the candidates,” he said.

  • Candidates seek extension of registration deadline

    Candidates seek extension of registration deadline

    Candidates applying for the 2017 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) have pleaded for extension of registration deadline following what they called”rigorous registration process”.

    Many of them, in conjunction with other stakeholders, are now calling for the extension of the examination beyond its February ending deadline.

    “I’m tired,’ said one of the candidates at the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB)registration centres called Connexion in Iyana Ishashi on Thursday.

    “I’ve been coming here since Monday, but the crowd is too much. You can see what is happening today too,” she said pointing to the horde of candidates on cue for registration.

    “I arrive on time today but you can see how large the crowd is. If it has taken me a week or two to complete the registration, when will I start reading for the exam?” she asked our reporter rhetorically.

    Another candidate, who introduced herself as Ramat, said she would rather go home and come back this week. She hoped the pressure will have reduced.

    “I can’t stand this pressure. I am asthmatic and there is so much dust everywhere,” Ramat lamented.

    Candidates keep besieging some of the designated JAMB registrations centres every day.

    The Nation learnt that after parting with the mandatory N6,200 for the examination form, creating an e-mail and a personal profile on JAMB’s website, only a handful were able to generate the Personal Identification Number (PIN) code due to poor internet service.

    However, the stringent but slow process the registration has taken is now making many to wonder if the examination body will meet the deadline for registration.

    This development, The Nation learnt, is also creating a friction between JAMB and bank officials over accusations and counter accusations following the slow pace of internet.

    A candidate, who visited JAMB registration centre in Festac Town, Lagos, alleged that due to the huge number of candidates, some of the officials connived with bank officials to extort money from frustrated candidates to have them registered on time.

    “It is not compulsory (to pay) but many candidates here are doing it because we are all frustrated. If you have to pay N1000 or N2000 to do your registration, is it not better than coming here to waste your precious time every day?” the candidate said.

  • CAC to end registration with fake identities

    CAC to end registration with fake identities

    The Registrar-General, Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Bello Mahmud has said the era of using fake identity for registration of businesses will soon be over. He said it is no longer enough to put a name down in registering companies, identities must be behind the names.

    Represented by his Special Assistant, Garba Abubakar during the Commerce and Industry Correspondent Round Table in Abuja yesterday, Mahmud said the Federal Government data base harmonisation is happening soon, which will confirm the authenticity of name and valid identity of citizens. For now who ever is registering any company must provide his drivers licence, international passport and valid identity card, he said.

    Mahmud said: “ßy the time the Federal Government data base are harmonised we will now confirm the authenticity of the information given to the commission through the national database, but presently the data base are not harmonised yet, it is still being worked on. At present, we are satisfied when someone submits evidence of a valid identity as part of the requirements for registration.