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The Action Congress
of Nigeria (ACN) has expressed concerns over the problems plaguing the
ongoing voter registration exercise, describing the hiccups as the
single greatest obstacle to free, fair and credible polls in April.

The party made this
known through a statement by its national publicity secretary; Lai
Mohammed on Sunday where it identified setbacks such as “registration
of voters without their fingerprints being captured, disappearance of
DDC machines which can be used for illegal registration and alleged
over-supply of DDC machines to the areas that are known to be
strongholds of the PDP” as major issues befalling the 10 day
registration.

Doubting the
emergence of a credible voters register at the end of the registration,
the party demands that the electoral agency, “urgently provide answers”
to the following posers.

“At what point will
double registration by a single person be detected? Is it when the data
collected after registrations are fed into servers at local, state or
federal level? Once detected, how will this problem be addressed? A
successful voter registration is a sine qua non for free and fair
elections. This is why we cannot afford to fail in ensuring that the
ongoing exercise succeeds,” ACN said. The party warned the electoral
commission not to take anything for granted, because unscrupulous
politicians will stop at nothing to tamper with the registration
exercise as a prelude to rigging the forthcoming polls.

The party also
called the attention of INEC to stories making the rounds that the
voter registration has been programmed to fail, hence the massive,
artificial hiccups to give way for the use of discredited voters
register. According to the statement, “the rumour is that once the
ongoing registration fails, INEC will have no choice than to use the
old, discredited register – which it will claim to have cleaned up –
for April’s elections.”

The electoral body was urged to ensure that in the remaining days to
the end of the registration exercise, the suppliers of the machines are
compelled to “deploy the necessary expertise to ensure that the
registration runs smoothly.” The party also enjoined INEC not shy away
from “seeking an extension of the exercise, if necessary” noting that
‘’failure to do that will mean that thousands of voters would be
disenfranchised in April, and that the promise by President Goodluck
Jonathan to organise free and fair elections would have evaporated into
thin air, complete with his credibility and that of INEC Chairman
Attahiru Jega.”