Imo Governor weeps over low voter turnout in southeast

Imo State governor, Rochas Okorocha, has expressed his frustration over the low turnout of voters in the southeast region for the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration exercise by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The governor revealed that he weeps at night in worry over the implications of the situation in the run up to the 2019 general elections.

While speaking during a church service to mark the Easter Monday celebration at Okigwe Catholic diocese in Imo, Okorocha urged residents of the region to participate more actively in the electoral process by exercising their rights to vote.

He said, "A particular scenario makes me cry; INEC's data shows that south-south has nine million registered voters, north-central, 12 million registered voters, north-east, 15 million registered voters, south-west, 14 million registered voters, north-west, 18 million registered voters, while south-east has just eight million registered voters.

"This situation makes me cry. I weep every night because of this development. This means that we have lost out before the 2019 election. If care is not taken, we will make ourselves slaves.

"My lord bishop, please tell our people to register. Our bishops must encourage Igbo people to register now. I have started shouting again, the same way I shouted in 2015.

"If Yoruba people can jettison tribal politics in 2015 to ensure that the APC won, Igbo people can do the same in 2019. Today, the Yoruba people are occupying sensitive positions in the Federal Government."

Continuous Voter Registration ends in December 2018

According to statistics released by INEC, out of a total of 73,944,312 registered voters across Nigeria (as of January 2018), the northwest has a total of 18,505,984 voters while the southeast has 8,293,093.

The statistics for the other zones show that the south west has the second highest number of registered voters with 14,626,800, while the south south comes close to it with 11,101,093 registered voters.

In the other two zones, the north central has 10,586,965 registered voters, while the north east zone has 9,929,015.

INEC projects that the number of registered voters might reach 80 million before the December 2018 deadline for voter registration.