…South lead, as Lagos, Edo, Oyo top chart
Ahead of the 2019 general elections, political parties have expressed
concern over the volume of Permanent Voters’ Cards, (PVC) of
prospective voters in the custody of the Independent National
Electoral Commission, (INEC).
According to data obtained exclusively from INEC source by Nigerian
Tribune the total figure of unclaimed PVCs stood at 8,134, 261. Lagos
State which has a total number of 6, 048, 156 registered voters tops
the list with a total estimated figure of 1,421, 392, followed by Oyo
state with 706, 926 trailed by Edo state with 461, 143.
Fourth on the chart of top states with unclaimed PVCs was Ogun
state with 434, 818 followed by Osun state with 418, 908. With the
findings, states in the south-west geo-political zone lead the chart
of unclaimed PVCs.
Politicians who spoke with Nigerian Tribune expressed concern over the
number of unclaimed PVCs barely a year to the general election. They
attributed the development to INEC lack of the required technology to
curtail double registration which they noted was often perpetrated by
dubious politicians conniving with the electoral body officials.
In a telephone interview with Nigerian Tribune, Publicity secretary of
Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin accused INEC of
a sinister motive.
He said: ‘’What I believe is that there has been incidents of multiple
registration of voters. But the reason why it is more pronounced in
the south than the north is that in 2015, what the INEC under
Professor Attahiru Jega did was to move the voters’ cards in bulk to
the palaces of the Emirs, whereas individuals collected in the south.
‘’So, that’s why you have the electoral heist of underage voting
because they just give it out. That’s why in the Southern Leaders
Forum we have asked for a review of the Voters Register, before the
election and there should be a panel consisting of retired Supreme
Court justices, INEC, political parties and international bodies, to
verify the voters list before we hold any general elections in
Nigeria. The electoral register must be vetted before any
election.’’
Chekwas Okorie, national chairman of the United Progressives Party,
(UPP) asked INEC to publish list of unclaimed PVCs across the states,
before the general elections to disprove claim of connivance to tamper
with the process. He cited the recent instance of alleged over voting
recorded in the recent Anambra governorship election.
‘’ So many people have complained that they haven’t been able to
access their PVC even when they go to INEC offices, at local
government or state. INEC on the other hand has said that people
aren’t coming to collect their PVCs. So, what INEC can do, because of
security situations in some states, there have been movement of people
and if you don’t have your PVCs you can do transfer. So what INEC can
do is to publish the names, since they have the primary data of all
the people on the PVCs they have. They can publish the names and
relevant information by way of advertisement— states by states,
people can now know that their PVCs have been indentified awaiting
collection. That’s what they can do, otherwise, they will allow
anybody who hasn’t the PVCs to register afresh since they have the
technology, since they have the technology that will screen out double
registration and of course ensure that you don’t lay your hand on it,
once you have been screened out.
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‘’With the current trend in technology, there is no excuse: all these
talks about certain number of PVCs uncollected doesn’t make sense to
me because it means INEC isn’t on top of its duty. Let them publish
the names for each state, so that people will know that their PVCs are
there, but awaiting collection. ‘’When they stock these PVCs, the same
INEC officials abused it during election. Otherwise, why should there
be 130,000 over voting in Anambra state? What did they use to do the
over voting? ‘’
PDP chairman in Edo state, Dan Orbih blamed eligible voters for not
picking their voters cards after registration.
‘’First of all, it is good for us to know why people will come and
register and refused to collect their PVC. Again, what this shows is
that INEC hasn’t done a clean job. It is obvious that multiple
registration has taken place to the extent that you have so many
people registered and they don’t care to pick their PVC . I think we
have a long way to go in our electoral process, to determine through
the votes of the people who should be president-elect. The same thing
with states where you have underage voters. INEC should apologise to
Nigerians. They shouldn’t tell Nigerians that those underage voters
were registered without their knowledge, they knew they weren’t of age
at the time of their registration by INEC.’’
National publicity secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP),
Kola Ologbodiyan, spoke in similar vein as he called on the Commission
to embark on sensitization campaign of prospective voters.
‘’The first thing is to advise Nigerians who haven’t collected their
PVCs to go and collect them. Two, INEC should provide a time line
during which people who haven’t collect their PVCs can go for them, or
else such PVCs are destroyed.
‘’INEC can claim it is illegal to destroy such but we will just
continue to canvass and ask Nigerians to go and collect their PVCs.
But in situation where such aren’t collected by those who registered,
INEC should bring out the list, publish it so that we can be sure
that they aren’t going to use it to abuse the process.’’
His counterpart and national publicity secretary of the All
Progressives Congress, (APC) Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, however said
there is nothing unusual about the figure, as he noted that there has
been precedence of failure on the part of eligible voters who
registered but refused to pick their voters cards.
The APC spokesperson said Nigerians should only be worried, if the
percentage of unclaimed voters cards was more than number of
registered voters.
‘’ We don’t have reason to express any fear. In the last election, so
many PVCs were unclaimed. You have to look at the percentage of
unclaimed PVCs, compared with those who have before you can begin to
say that.
‘’If it is unprecedented in the sense that it is so unusual
considering the figure of unclaimed PVCs then you can begin to say
some people want to use it to perpetrate election malpractice . This
isn’t the first time that voters cards will be unclaimed. So, in
logical terms, I don’t think I will agree with the conclusion that it
constitutes a threat to the electoral process.
‘’What we can do is to continue to encourage people to go and collect their voters cards. There is nowhere in the world where you have 100 % voters turn out. It doesn’t exist anywhere; in most advanced countries, it still the small minorities that turn out to vote.
In fact, Nigerian voters turn out is more than the global average. So, I don’t think that we should conclude that because there is so many unclaimed PVCs, it means people want to use it for ulterior motive.’’ INEC reacts
National chairman of the INEC, Professor Mahmoud Yakubu however
dismissed insinuation that eligible voters were allowed to collect
voters cards in a particular section of the country by proxy.
Speaking through his media aide, Rotimi Oyekanmi, the INEC chairman
equally dismissed allegation of double registration.
‘’The first thing is that we have a policy that you cannot collect
your PVC by proxy; it has to be done individually. That probably might
have informed the fact that many people who may not be physically
present, don’t get people to collect on their behalf, because we have
cases where people send relatives and all that and we said no. that’s
one.
‘’Two, we also don’t know but we can imagine that many people left
where they were living before or circumstances changed . Maybe some
people have passed on. But we are embarking on enlightenment and we
are talking to traditional rulers, we are also using our social media
platform and also advertising through whatever means, asking people to
come and pick up their PVCs.
‘’But there is a trend we noticed: When there is an election, people
come up quickly to get their cards. That happened during the Edo,
Ekiti and Anambra governorship elections. ‘’More people turned up to
get their PVCs or where there is going to be local government
elections. So that’s the trend. ‘’Really we are concerned and we are
trying our best to enlighten people on the need to collect their
PVCs.’’
Oyekanmi assured the electorate that the technology available to the
Commission doesn’t give room to multiple registration.
‘’We have a server, there is an application that we use that detect
multiple registration, practically. Your finger print remains the same
and it is unique to use as an individual. So, if you register with the
same details, with the finger print, the computer will detect it. It
happened several times during the 2015 election, where a lot of double
registration was cancelled at that time. It is the same thing now.’’
