By Linus Aleke
A Coalition of Civil Society Organizations on Monday reiterated its calls for the extension of Continuous Voters Registration (CVR), across the federation.

The group noted that aside from decentralized the call in the extension of the deadline, it also, hoped that the extension will be accompanied by the decision to decentralize the registration exercise to the ward level and extension of the registration days to the weekends.

The group laid this emphasis when Mr. Abideen Olasupo, on behalf of Brain Builders Youth Development Initiative
Connected Development
Raising New Voices
Webfala Digital Skills For All Initiative
Building Block for Peace Foundation
Kimpact Development Initiative
Aspillos Foundation
SING Nigeria, addressed a press conference in Abuja.

“This briefing couldn’t have come at a better time due to the exigency of the situation, especially at this critical period in our electoral democracy. In exactly 17 days, June 30th 2022, the Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) will be suspended by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to clean up its data and print Permanent Voters Card (PVC) ahead of the 2023 general elections. This is preceded by the online pre-registration portal that closed on May 31st, 2022.

Catholic Church to give funeral mass to Owo Victims Friday

“We have witnessed an unprecedented surge in the number of Nigerians coming to get registered. Given that we have barely three weeks, we welcome the news that INEC is considering extending the deadline for the registration.

“As an organisation, we cannot overemphasized the importance of getting registered and collecting your Permanent Voters Card (PVC) within the appropriate timeframe to enable us to have a say on the people and policies that govern us.

We strongly urge that citizens use all available means to ensure they are fully registered and for those already registered, to make sure they collect their Permanent Voters Card if and when available. We also call on citizens to sustain the level of interest and participation beyond the CVR exercise to all other activities in the electoral process ahead of the 2023 General Elections,” they said.

The group concluded that missing out or non-participation in any of these activities is not just a disservice to self but also a disservice to generations yet unborn.