×

Fashola Lambasts INEC Over Distribution Of Permanent Voter Card

Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola (SAN) on Sunday lambasted the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over the hiccups recorded during the Permanent Voter Cards (PVC) … Continue reading Fashola Lambasts INEC Over Distribution Of Permanent Voter Card


Babatunde_FasholaLagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola (SAN) on Sunday lambasted the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over the hiccups recorded during the Permanent Voter Cards (PVC) distribution exercise .

“This is an exercise INEC told us they are going to be ready in August, then they moved it to September; then November and they still didn’t get it right”, he said on Politics Today.

The Governor, who said residents of Lagos have been sending him text messages on INEC’s poor outing on the exercise, added that “if people are feeling that this is the rigging plan, then we need to be careful” wondering “if INEC is nurturing or threatening this democracy”.

He noted that the electoral umpire is sending the wrong signal to the electorates, adding that with such complaints coming from various quarters, INEC is giving Nigerians the impression that “it is a referee with an interest.

“From the foundation of the election, the participants are saying this is already wrong”, he said, adding that “we may be heading for trouble”.

Though he agreed that election planning has to do with a huge logistic operation, Governor Fashola insisted that INEC should have started planning for the 2015 election immediately after the 2011 general elections.

He wondered why “India with over a billion people can organise elections and we dont hear these kind of things every four years, America with 300 million people can organise election; Brazil just finished elections, I think they have about 300 million people too, what is then wrong with 170 million that we can’t organise election? Is the head of the organisation unable or unwilling?.

“Let us go back to 2010-2011 when the current INEC chairman was new, he told us then that he has found something he called the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS); it was technology we paid for and he assured all of us that this is the real deal.

“And these cards (Permanent Voter Card) are the result of that AFIS and if you look on the register you will see duplications. So what did INEC buy?, did they buy a second hand AFIS?, he asked.

Governor Fashola stated that the Lagos State Government purchased AFIS machines for the Lagos State Residents Registration from Japan, adding that the machine has identified multiple registrations by residents of Lagos, insisting that “this is what should have been done over four years and not now”.

He said Nigerians expected INEC to get better with the exercise with time, maintaining that “it is time we begin to focus on INEC as an institution that is threatening the democratic process of the country”.

Governor Fashola further listed problems that have contributed to the alleged failure of the PVC distribution exercise.

He noted that “there is a logistical failure; the facts are that the exercise has not progressed as planned and citizens are not able to get their cards.

“My own local government, has been suspended from the exercise. They have postponed mine, they have postponed that of the deputy governor and they have suspended that of the speaker” wondering “what kind of message they are sending to the body politics”.