No IDP voting centre in Niger state – REC

Saka Bolaji, Minna

There is no internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), voting centre in Niger State during the upcoming general elections on February 16 and March 2, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has clarified. The Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state, Professor Sam Egwu on Wednesday explained that this was because officially, there was no IDPs campaign i n the state. Prof. Egwu who was having an interactive session with newsmen at the state INEC headquarters in Minna, stated that only the less privileged will be given preference to vote in the state. Accordingly, he said “as at today, there will be IDP voting in eight states across Nigeria officially, and Niger state is not part of them. “There won’t be voting in IDP camps across Niger because there are no official IDP camps. Most of them prefer to live with their relatives in other communities and so, there was no way they could be captured and allotted polling units.” “However, provisions have been made for the physically challenged amongst us, including pregnant women and old people so that they can actively participate without stress”. Prof. Egwu also disclosed that out of the 22,839 requests received for permanent voters card transfer, only 6,496 persons have collected. “This number is only 28 percent of the total.” “In all, we have done continuous registration of 400,000 new voters plus the 2,390,035 numbers inherited in 2015 making a total 2,167,788 PVCs have been collected since 2011 till date.