The Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, of the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC, in Rivers State, Hon. Aniedi Ikoiwak has assured that all eligible voters in the state will be duly registered before the end of the on-going voter registration exercise.

Ikoiwak gave the assurance at a round table conference organised by the National Orientation Agency, NOA, in Port Harcourt last weekend.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner, who admitted some shortcomings in the exercise, commended the turn out of Rivers people.

He said over 3,997 Direct Data Capturing (DDC) machines had been distributed in the state and every registered unit in Rivers State now has a DDC machine.

According to him, delineation of centres would be done after the general election.

On the remuneration for INEC staff, he said INEC is presently engaging about 9,000 persons in the exercise and that N88 million is to be paid to the adhoc personnel.

The INEC boss, who expressed optimism over the voter registration exercise, pointed out that, “this is the first time we, as a country are taking correct data of our active productive population and our computers have in-built mechanism to address peculiar Nigeria problems.

In his remark, the State Director, National Orientation Agency (NOA), Chief Andy Nweye, said the round table discussion was to stimulate decisions in the process of governance at the state and national levels.

He noted that Nigeria was at the threshold of evolving a better democratic process and stakeholders are expected to effect the needed change in the polity through sharing of ideas.

While appreciating some challenges encountered in the voters registration exercise such as lack of materials and poor staff training, he called on Rivers people to cooperate with INEC to achieve the objectives of the exercise.

Beemene Taneh