Princewill Assures INEC On Voters’ Registration

Chairman of the Rivers State Council of Traditional Rulers and Amanyanabo of Kalabari Kingdom, King T. J. T. Princewill, has assured the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) of maximum support from the royal fathers towards ensuring mass participation in the forthcoming voters’ registration exercise in the state.

He was speaking when a delegation of the commission led by the state Resident Electoral Commissioner Hon. Aniedi-Abasi Ikoiwak, paid him a courtesy call in his office in Port Harcourt, recently.

King Princewill said as royal fathers, council embers were prepared to mobillize their subjects at the grassroots to participate in the exercise realising that a poor turn-out by eligible voters could jeopardise the widely acknowledged voting strength of the state in the 2011 election.

The chairman advised INEC to provide necessary logistics that would enable registration officials cover all the nooks and crannies of the state during the two-week long exercise.

His words: “while we as royal fathers would consider your request to mobilize our subjects for the registration exercise, INEC on its part should also not relent in reaching out to the people in the various communities especially those in far-flung riverine areas with sufficient materials to ensure that no one is left out within the period  earmarked for the exercise”.

The monarch recalled that past elections in the country were often characterised by vote fraud and other forms of irregularities noting that the 2011 poll presents yet another opportunity for all those involved in election engineering in Nigeria to get it right stressing that only a free and fair election could guarantee sustainability of the nation’s democracy.

King Princewill thanked the INEC chief for the visit and hoped that it would open up areas of mutual cooperation between the electoral body and the chieftaincy institution for the benefit of Rivers people.

Earlier, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Hon. Aniedi-Abasi Ikoiwak, had briefed the monarch on the activities of his commission ahead of next year’s general election.

He explained that the visit was in recognition of the importance of the chieftaincy institution in mobilizing the people towards participating fully in the forthcoming registration exercise so as to reflect the high voter-turn-out of Rivers electorate at previous elections. Hon. Ikoiwak disclosed that INEC had acquired 120,000 Data capturing machines for the exercise while arrangements had been completed to train officers who would man them and implored the chieftaincy institution to use its channel to effectively mobilize the people to register within the time frame set out in the new election time table soon to be released.