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Ohanaeze Ndigbo Alleges Bias In PVCs Distribution In Lagos

By Onyedika Agbedo
06 February 2015   |   7:47 pm
OHANAEZE Ndigbo, Lagos State chapter, has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of plotting to deny majority of Igbos in the state the opportunity to vote in the forthcoming general elections, through selective issuance of the Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs).   Addressing a press conference in Lagos, President of the group, Fabian Onwughalu, alleged…

OHANAEZE Ndigbo, Lagos State chapter, has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of plotting to deny majority of Igbos in the state the opportunity to vote in the forthcoming general elections, through selective issuance of the Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs).

  Addressing a press conference in Lagos, President of the group, Fabian Onwughalu, alleged that the distribution of the PVCs in Igbo dominated areas of the state had been cumbersome, stressing that “we see this as strategy to ensure that our people do not get these cards before the election.”

 Onwughalu further alleged that “while some people, especially people from the Yoruba extraction, arrange in some cases with the INEC to give them these cards in bulk, which they personally deliver to individuals in their various homes, we have not been given that opportunity.”

  He added: “There are so many Igbo people that have not gotten their PVCs not because they do not want to, but because the regulatory body, INEC, has not made them available. A lot of our people who have the temporary voters’ cards have been unable to exchange them for the PVCs. This has become worrisome because this is experienced in areas predominantly inhabited by Ndigbo in Lagos State such as Amuwo-Odofin,

Oriade, Ajeromi-Ifelodun, Alimosho, Ayobo, Badagry, Coker Aguda, Eti-Osa, Ejigbo, Ojo and Isolo, among others.

  “Having reviewed the situation for a very long time and after putting on a lot of pressure on the INEC to make the distribution of the PVCs very easy to our people to no avail, we have decided to tell Nigerians and the world at large of the systematic strategy by INEC to disenfranchise our people. We believe that it is our inalienable right to participate in all elections in this country. But the INEC has put itself as a clog to our desire to perform this right.”

UNDEDSS, APC, Afenifere Differ  On Saturday’s Elections

Seye Olumide

THE United Niger Delta Energy Development Security Strategy (UNDEDSS) yesterday said for the sake of peace, the 2015 elections should hold as already fixed. 

  In a statement signed by the Secretary General, Mr. Tony Uranta, UNDEDSS said the organisation was aware of the fact that general elections have been postponed severally in the past, without the heavens falling, adding that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has shown a lack of capacity to optimally put all necessary machinery, men and material in place.

   He, however, said that UNDEDSS is of the position that for the sake of peace, the elections should hold as already fixed.

 Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has raised alarm that in spite of the commendable and patriot decision by the National Council of State that the 2015 general elections must go on as scheduled, proponents of election shift have not given up on their desperation to scuttle the elections.

In a statement issued in Abuja yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said, however, that the desperadoes will always fail in their evil machinations, because no power is strong enough to defeat a determined people.

  The statement reads:  “It said the provocative call by the bogus Southern Nigeria Peoples Assembly for the postponement of the elections and the arrest of INEC Chairman Attahiru Jega is one of the new antics of the election postponement campaigners.

“It is shameful that those who should be working hard to promote peaceful elections as scheduled are the same ones doing everything possible to trigger violence. Those who should ordinarily be seen as elder statesmen have degenerated to dangerous partisans and shameless promoters of a narrow, parochial interest, at the expense of the national interest.”

  “Who does not know that wherever President Goodluck Jonathan’s interest lies, therein you will find Chief Edwin Clark, whether or not it is in the national interest?”

 The spokesman of Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, however expressed doubt over the preparations and readiness of the electoral umpire for the exercise “which is less than 10 days.”

  According to him, “Let us wait and see the way the exercise will go in a situation where over 22 million Nigerians are likely to be disenfranchise as a result of insufficient PVCs.”

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