The Political Adviser to the Delta State Governor, Chief Fred Majemite, has appealed to the Independent National Electoral Commission to create more time for people to register to vote in the state.
Majemite who spoke to reporters on Friday on the outcome of the recent distribution of Permanent Voter Cards in the state, said that it was also necessary that a time frame be provided for people to go out to register.
He said due to the short time scheduled for the last party membership registration by INEC, many people were disenfranchised. This was compounded by the late arrival of some registration machines at registration centres.
He however said that there was massive turnout of people during the distribution of the PVC, adding that the job done by INEC was commendable but also faulted the number of days allocated for collection of the PVC.
He noted that INEC has improved on its services and conduct of elections as was evident in the Ekiti and Osun elections but however said that there was room for more improvement before 2015.
Speaking on the recently concluded local government primaries in the state, he said that the governor was determined to leave a good electoral legacy through the conduct of a free and fair council poll.
He said that apart from areas where consensus candidates were adopted, a level playing ground was provided for primaries in areas where there was no consensus. This he said accounted for the peace that characterised the conduct of the primaries.
The political adviser who said that the state had done remarkably well in ensuring peace and security in the state also said that government has pursued its three point agenda vigorously hence its ability to manage factions in the state.
Speaking on the Delta Beyond Oil initiative of the government, Majemite said that there was the need for the state to venture into renewable areas of diversification like agriculture and micro credit because someday the oil which is currently the major revenue generating product in the country would be exhausted.
“We don’t want to wait till then before we act. Only recently, the price of oil in the international market dropped per barrel,” he said.
He emphasized that because agriculture was the greatest employer of labour, the state embraced diversification to agriculture as it would also ensure availability and sustainability of food for all.
He stressed that there was no need to continue to hinge on oil so that if it drops the state could move forward.