PVCs distribution hiccups designed to rig 2015 polls — Tinubu
All Progressives Congress, APC, National Leader and immediate past Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, of planning to, deliberately, rig the 2015 general elections.
*Bola Tinubu
Tinubu, who stated this yesterday at a media briefing held at the APC Secretariat in Lagos, declared that the ongoing distribution of Permanent Voter’s Cards (PVCs), which commenced on Friday in Lagos, has failed.
The APC stalwart also criticised INEC for conducting the exercise in only 11 out of the original 20 local governments in the state, recognised by the Federal Government, while demanding that INEC should repeat and simultaneously conduct the exercise across the state.
He said, “This is a colossal failure and it has eroded my confidence in INEC to be able to midwife successful 2015 general elections. INEC must start the process afresh. The exercise must be conducted simultaneously across the 20 local governments recognised by INEC, at the same time.
“If they fail, we shall not disclose our strategy; if the exercise fails, something will happen. May be we will go on the streets to protest, may be we will go to court, we won’t reveal our strategy”, but we have our demands”, he said.
Tinubu, though exonerated the ad-hoc INEC staff, who are majorly undergoing the National Youth Service Corps scheme, put the major blame on the leadership of the Commission.
He stated: “We cannot blame the Youth Corps members who are just helping, it is not their fault. It is the people in charge from Abuja that failed.
“Four years ago, we sympathised with Jega, when he apologised to the nation over a failed exercise, but what are they going to say again?
“They had four years to plan and put their acts together. This is a deliberate ploy to fail. They did it deliberately to plan their rigging strategy”.
On the reduction of the voters list from over six million people to less than five million in Lagos, Tinubu demanded an immediate reinstatement of the almost two million voters delisted from the list.
“INEC cannot disenfranchise anybody. We are reporting the matter to our national secretariat. Those people removed from the voters’ register are almost two million. That is not acceptable, they must be put back on the list,’’ The APC leader said.
“INEC does not have the power to reduce or remove anybody. INEC is not a court of law. By this action, INEC has flouted the Electoral Act. “You cant say almost two million people are ghosts. If there is multiple registration, INEC must publish the names of those people.
“These almost two million people voted in 2011, are you saying they are ghosts. Were they ghosts when they voted in 2011? INEC has failed and this is a deliberate failure”.
Tinubu who wondered why INEC could not get the process right in four years pointed out that the, de- listing of voters in Lagos, hitches and seeming failures were deliberate to pave way for rigging of the election.
Ashafa condemns PVCs distribution
Senator Gbenga Ashafa, representing Lagos East in the Senate who also expressed dissatisfaction with the absence of INEC officials at certain polling units in Ikorodu, Ketu, Ojota, Magodo and Maryland among other areas under his jurisdiction, called on INEC to react swiftly to all the complaints from the citizens as it could disenfranchised them in the elections in 2015.
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