Ondo State Governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, has emphasized the importance of investing in initiatives that foster national awareness to encourage greater voter participation in elections.
Speaking during an appearance on Arise News on Monday, Aiyedatiwa pointed out that many Nigerians register for Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) primarily to have them as identification documents, without actively engaging in the electoral process.
He said, “We need to encourage people to vote, and there is a need for national awareness to be created so that people always come out to vote. Some citizens are passive, while some are active.
“Not everyone that is registered is active and this is not peculiar to Ondo State. It happens in every election all over the country.
“A lot of people registered to have their PVC because they just want to have that document, but when it comes to being active politically, not everyone that registered is active politically, and this has been happening in other elections conducted in other states, not just in Ondo State.”
He also dismissed reports about vote-buying, saying that the election was free and fair.
“Everybody is entitled to their opinion, depending on where they are speaking from and areas they visited. I want to tell you that not every location was visited by the so-called CSOs and observers, but really and truly, there are some locations where we have a delay, a bit of delay, initially, when it comes to accreditation through the BVAS network, slowed down the process in some areas.
“Eventually, people were able to vote, but in some areas, they made such complaints as well. The BVAS was slow, but along the line, it picked up. That is why you can get that number of votes. If you look at the total number of votes of those who voted in the elections, the number is like every other election, and even though we have a higher figure in this very election than some of the elections that have been conducted in the previous elections.
“So even though the BVAS was failing at the point where it picked up and then people were able to vote and that was how we were able to record the numbers,” he added
