Group seeks increased voter education for women, laments poor awareness

Delta aspirant wants unity in APC, backs Buhari’s policies
House of Reps hopeful tasks FG on poverty, unemployment

The Women’s Situation Room Nigeria (WSRN) yesterday advocated robust engagement and education of female voters ahead of the 2019 general elections.With no fewer than 40 women-focused organisations across the country and established before the 2015 elections to monitor election-related violence against women, it said there is low level of awareness among women on the need to collect their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) to enable them exercise their voting rights.

The group, which carried out a nationwide survey in the six geo-political zones on women’s voting, stated that women were four per cent less likely than men to report collection of PVCs in recent times.Its National Coordinator, Joy Onyesoh, said women were less knowledgeable about the need to register for their PVCs to participate in the voting exercise, which she noted, was not a good sign for the 2019 elections.

“Findings from the survey should serve as a warning and a clarion call to action. It is clear that more work needs to be done to ensure that women are able to fully exercise their right to vote in next year’s elections.

However, an aspirant to the Delta State House of Assembly for Ughelli North Constituency I on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Ominimini Obiuwevbi, has urged members of the APC to unite and liberate the state from its many challenges.

He said this at Evwreni, Ughelli North Local Council, during his consultation visit to Executive Director, Projects, Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Samuel Adjogbe, during which no fewer than 1,000 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members defected to the APC. He said he would bring his past experience as a former DESOPADEC Commissioner, Director, Delta Printing and Publishing Company, Speaker, Ughelli North legislative arm and other political offices to bear in giving quality representation to the constituency.

Speaking, Adjogbe endorsed Obiuwevbi and urged APC members in the constituency to vote for him during the party’s primary elections.Meanwhile, a House of Representatives aspirant in Ogun State, Basirat Shonekan-Umaru, has said that security lapses, unemployment and life threatening poverty were indications that the APC-led government has failed and should be voted out of power next year.

Shonekan-Umaru, who declared her intention yesterday to run for the Abeokuta South Federal Constituency under the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), stated this at the party secretariat in Abeokuta, stressing the need for a paradigm shift in representation at the National level.“The time has come for a break from the past, for a purposeful and fruitful change and restoration of hope, responsible government and dynamic representation,” she said.