I sincerely write to bring to your notice as an umpire saddled with the responsibility to organize, manage and announce election results in Nigeria, that Ukelle, the Yala II State constituency in Cross River State do not have access to registration centres due to the deplorable state of the road linking all the six wards as well as distance from various wards to the Local Government headquarters where the INEC personnel are, as distances covers 5 hrs and above just to access the Council’s headquarters outside the time required to return.
There is no doubt that Yala LGA has two constituencies of which Ukelle is one but presently, majority of eligible voters across the six wards of Ukelle do not have access to participate in the ongoing Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) owing to distances from their wards and locations to Okpoma, the Council’s headquarters where all the INEC personnel conduct the exercise.
I am making this appeal as a concern constituent who believes in equity and justice to call on you as a body to use your good offices to deploy some of your personnel to serve the interest of the Ukelle Nation and the entire six giant political wards to save them from being disenfranchised in the forthcoming 2023 general elections.
Ukelle has always been at the receiving end of negligence as politicians from the constituency and beyond only visit during election seasons.
It has been observed that if any election falls within the rainy season, they will avoid the region but make a rendezvous for their campaign meetings as well as planning how they can come and harvest votes on election’s day.
I do believe that as a democratically designated body, you would consider this Clarion call and act promptly as a way of doing justice to the underrepresented Ukelle Constituency.
Comrade Eddelukpata writes from Lagos State
