Femi Onireti, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has joined the crusade to mobilize eligible voters who are yet to register or complete their registration, lost their permanent voters card (PVC), have it damaged or willing to change their polling booth, to take advantage of the ongoing process put in place by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Earlier today, Onireti visited some PVC registration centres in Ogbomoso North local government to monitor the process and mobilize voters to participate in line with the call by the OSE4GSM Team’s drive on the PVC registration.
OSE4GSM Team, a team put in place by the Chief of Staff to Governor Seyi Makinde, Chief Segun Ogunwuyi (OSE, an acronym of his name – Ogunwuyi Segun Ebenezer) to drive the electoral fortunes of Governor Seyi Makinde (GSM), began the sensitization/mobilization exercise on Monday, August 9 in Ogbomoso South local government, with Chief Ogunwuyi personally supervising the process.
Ogunwuyi in a report had said, “The need to engage in effective voters’ education, sensitization and registration can never be overemphasized as this is the only empowerment we can offer our people ahead of the forthcoming general election. Voters card is the only power to elect good leaders.”
Public address system-mounted vehicles are moving around the council area to sensitize the people and according to findings this has provided effective enlightenment and thus people are trooping out in large numbers to participate in the process.
Onireti speaking with ogbomosoinsightonline.com on the exercise urged the residents of Ogbomoso to come out in their numbers to obtain their permanent voters card emphasizing that “only with the PVC can leaders the people want get elected into offices. If as Nigerians we continue to clamour for good governance but we do not have the wherewithal (PVC) to elect good leaders, we will move nowhere.
“I want to call on our people who are just turning eighteen years old, those who either lost their PVC or did not obtain in the past to go out to register. This is also an opportunity for those who need to change their polling centre to a place nearer their current abode to seize the advantage so that they can smoothly partake in voting in the future. Voters card is our strength, we should endeavour to bear the pain involved to obtain it, it is the only instrument by which we can effectively change the narrative in Nigeria.”
Onireti who last Monday commissioned three boreholes one each in Ogbomoso North, Ogbomoso South and Oriire local governments, also gave pep talks to the PVC registration officials at the centres he visited charging them to efficiently discharge their duties and to be patient with the people who come for the exercise.
He further observed, “Ogbomoso has a large population yet our voting strength is always low, this is somehow ridiculous, thus we need to begin to make conscious efforts towards changing the situation, there is need for us in Ogbomoso to realize our potential in the area of voting capacity and this we can only achieve if our people obtain their permanent voters card. We all should encourage people close to us who are yet to obtain PVC to do so, so that they can exercise their civic right to vote in general elections.”
A prospective voter needs to obtain a permanent voters card; those who are yet to obtain either because they just turned 18 years, lost theirs or is damaged need to first register online before presenting the form for physical registration.
