Cross River State Governor, Prof. Ben Ayade has called on residents of the state to ensure that they register and collect their Permanent Voter’s Card before the 2019 elections.
Ayade made the call when he received a set of his appointees under the aegis of Special Assistants Network, who are running an advocacy programme to encourage the collection of PVCs.
In order to aid the group in achieving effective mobilisation, the governor announced the release of N9 million for the exercise across the 18 council areas of the state.
Ayade, who lamented the poor outlay of monthly revenue allocated to the state, attributed the shortfall to a record of over 10 years population figure, saying that there the was need to mobilise the populace to come out and get registered, to reflect the current reality that will translate into economic terms.
“This campaign is very important because it is not all about my re-election but for the sake of Cross River State that has been cheated over the years owing to the non-challant attitude of the populace on issues as sensitive as voters’ registration and we must change the paradigm by ensuring everyone comes out, gets registered and collects their PVCs.”
Continuing, he disclosed, “Cross River State is over 4.5 million in terms of population size, but records continue to place it at 2.3million.
What a falsehood? And we have been on this for the past 10 years, which is why I am supporting this campaign to change the paradigm because whatever figure you get also accounts for developmental indices from the Federal Government.”
While thanking his aides for the initiative with a promise to provide them with the necessary logistics, Ayade further charged, “Please, ensure that everybody of voting age is registered in your various wards, not only for the 2019 election, but also to ensure that true adults’ population of the state will be reflected in any exercise carried out by any organisation.”
Leader of the group and Special Assistant on Peace and Reconciliation, Mr. Charles Ushie, stated that the essence of the network was to sensitise the citizenry on the need to equip themselves with the PVC ahead of the general election, adding that they would also ensure that those who were yet to register were encouraged to do so across the 196 wards of the 18 local government areas of the state.
He thanked the governor for believing in their capacity to serve the state and promised to do their best to ensure that their people, especially those in the grassroots, were fully mobilised for the exercise.
According to him, this would be a token of their contribution to support the re-election of Governor Ayade, given his track record of performance, which he noted had resulted in transforming the socio-economic landscape of the state in the last three years.
