LAGOS—Members of the All Progressives
Congress, APC, and many Lagos residents,
yesterday, protested shoddy distribution of the
Permanent Voters Cards, PVCs, by the
Independent National Electoral Commission,
INEC.

PROTEST: Members of the Nucleus Group, TNG,
during a protest over alleged poor distribution
of Permanent Voters’ Cards, PVC, by INEC at
Lagos House, Alausa, Ikeja, yesterday. Photo:
Bunmi Azeez

In their thousands, the protesters stormed the
Birrel Avenue, Yaba, office of the commission
and later the Alausa, Ikeja, office of Governor
Babatunde Fashola, to register their complaints.
They got to INEC’s office at about 9 am and
Fashola’s office around 1pm. They displayed
various placards with indicting inscriptions
against INEC.

Some of the placards read: “The electoral body
is hoarding the PVCs to disenfranchise residents
in 2015 elections!” “We Lagosians detest rigging,
give us our PVCs!” “Lagosians reaffirm one man,
one woman, one vote, give us our PVCs, period!”
“Jega, be warned, don’t act FG’s script in Lagos’!”
“We beg una to give us our cards!” “The totality
of Agege Youth, women and men are demanding
an extension for PVC collection!” “INEC, Agege
demands more time for our PVC collection!”
“Enough of your show of shame INEC, we need
our PVC!”

They sang several solidarity and anti-INEC songs,
vowing that they would never allow election to
be rigged in the state.
The protesters, under the aegis of Activists for
Good Governance, AGG, The Nucleus Group,
TNG, consisted of party members from the 20
local councils and 37 local council development
areas.

At the INEC office, there was tight security as
scores of armed policemen ensured that the
protest did not degenerate into violence.
Speaking on behalf of the AGG, Comrade Declan
Ihekaire said Nigerians were afraid that INEC is
planning to rig next year’s elections, especially
in states controlled by the APC, which informed
the hoarding of the PVCs.

“2015 is here already and any attempt to
disenfranchise Nigerians will mark the beginning
of action. What we see is that INEC is short of
staff and you are already being nicknamed as
trying to rig the election next year,” he told the
INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC,
Lagos State, Dr Adekunle Ademola.

“INEC must ensure the PVCs get to the people
and they should not attempt to rig the election.
Those in power know that there will be protest
votes in 2015 and that is why they are trying to
rig the election,” he added.

Spokesperson of TNG, Comrade Olusola Odubiro
called on INEC to extend the exercise by two
weeks so that all Lagosians would get their PVCs.
Responding, Dr. Ogunmola admitted that the
body had been encountering problems in the
distribution of PVCs in Lagos but assured that at
the end of the exercise, every Lagosian duly
registered will get his or her PVC.

“Our intention is to ensure all registered voters
in Lagos State get their PVCs before the 2015
elections. There have been hiccups; we are only
distributing materials given to us,” he admitted.
Extends exercise till tomorrow in Mushin, others
Ogunmola said: “Due to the problem
encountered on Friday, we added Monday.
Beyond that, there are some local governments
that would be addressed on case-by-case basis
like Mushin Local Government. We received
some PVCs yesterday (Sunday) and we have
deployed our officers to the local governments.
We will extend the exercise till Tuesday (today)
for that local government.

“In Mushin, yesterday, we distributed PVCs to
529 polling units. By the time we complete the
11 Local Governments, all will be captured. We
are also doing continuous voters registration to
capture everybody,” he said.

Data for some polling units no longer exist
Ogunmola continued: “The reason why you
cannot find INEC officials at some polling units
was that the data for those units no longer exist.
We will be taking our machines to those polling
units to re-register the residents, and two
machines have been allocated for those units.”
‘Unclaimed PVCs will be transferred to council
INEC offices’

After the exercise , he said, “residents are
expected to visit the councils to collect their
PVCs. The beauty of the arrangement is we will
be following the process up with the Continuous
Voter Registration. For those who didn’t see
their name on the list, they should re-register
when the voters registration starts.”
Voting in 2015 election

For next year’s election, Ogunmola said:
“Anyone whose fingerprints does not correspond
with what is on his PVC will not be counted.
What we are doing is because of the political
class. We want to ensure that we block all
loopholes, and that was why it has taken the
commission this long to provide the cards.”
Why we couldn’t retain 6.2 million register for
Lagos

“If we retain the number we captured in 2011,
residents will get to their polling units and will
not be able to find their names. It amounts to
disenfranchising them. That was why we have
decided to inform them earlier. When we started
the registration in 2010, there were some
hiccups and some of them didn’t revisit the
polling units for ratification when we announced
that they should go revisit the polling units.”

Fashola appeals to protesters
Responding, Governor Babatunde Fashola who
led the members of the State Executive Council
to address the protesting residents, expressed
disappointment with INEC’s handling of the PVC
distribution exercise.

While also calling for extension of the exercise
in view of the population of Lagos State, he said:
“If our sizes are different why don’t we have
different cloths? When they spend certain days
in states that are not as populated as Lagos, why
should they spend same days with Lagos which
is more populated?”

“Why should INEC keep deceiving us? What if
INEC is the one running our banks? What if INEC
is the one producing Coca-cola and Guinness
and other popular consumables,? We wouldn’t
have had them in the market again What is
difficult in the distribution of the PVCs?”
He wondered why it is becoming increasingly
difficult for the nation’s electoral umpire to do
the necessary things by ensuring all Nigerians
are not disenfranchised.

CTCE kicks
Speaking in like manner, a pro-democracy
pressure group, the Centre for Transparent and
Credible Election (CTCE) berated the INEC and
described its handling of the exercise in Lagos as
“shoddy and untidy.”
The group, in a statement signed by its National
Coordinator, Wale Adeyemi complained that,
“the exercise is fraught with a lot of
irregularities such as duplication of names,
missing names, misspelt names, inadequate
materials as well as muddling up of identities.”
Against this background, the organization
therefore called on the INEC boss, Professor
Attahiru Jega, to put his house in order so as not
to create the impression that he is out to
disenfranchise Lagos voters.

www.vanguardngr.com/2014/11/ppmc-exports-n117bn-fuel-oil-2013/

Millions of Lagosians got the PVC without hitches. If not for the same government that made all of you jobless to also engage in paid protest by 9.am when sensible men are at their place of work. APC afraid of defeat, we await the imposition of una Amboger, at the poll, all the kangeroo noise cannot move pple any longer.

Has anyone collected?