Some Lagos residents on Monday converged on the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission to protest what they termed the poor and shoddy distribution of Permanent Voter Cards in the state.
The residents, who came in batches under different groups, said there was a ploy to disenfranchise majority of Lagosians.
They carried placards bearing messages such as ‘INEC, do not disenfranchise Lagosians,’ ‘JEGA jagajaga’, and sang abusive songs against the commission.
Policemen from Ibeju-Lekki, Sabo, Iponri and Surulere divisions were mobilised to the INEC office in eight vans to control the crowd.
Also at the scene were soldiers and officials of the Department of State Service, armed with guns.
There was almost a face-off between the security officials and the protesters over the obstruction of traffic, but the protest leaders intervened and called for calm.
The President of the Vote for Service Initiative, Adeola Ilori, said the group had come to demand an explanation from the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Dr. Ademola Ogunmola, on why the PVC distribution had been shoddy.
He said, “We are a non-governmental organisation monitoring INEC’s distribution of the PVC for the past four days.
“To say the least, the exercise has been shoddy. The arrangement was not what we expected. Throughout Friday when we expected them to start, nothing happened.
“I was in contact with the REC throughout Friday, and he said the Abuja office had just delivered the materials they were to share. He said they had distributed cards in five local government areas of the state. But my contacts in those places told me nothing had been done.
“The REC later said activities would pick up on Saturday morning. But on Saturday, I discovered what they had done was merely a skeletal job. Also, nothing happened on Sunday.”
He said many residents had been discouraged about the exercise and may not show up again at the polling units.
Another group, Movement for Democratic Change, said INEC had no excuse not to perform its duties well.
The convener of the group, Raji Rasheed, said, “INEC does not have any excuse because they had four years to prepare for this exercise, and to whom much is given, much is expected.
“From my observation, their problem was that they did not prepare for the exercise. As of 10am today (Monday), they had yet to report at the Agege LGA.
“We also believe that they lack enough staff.”
However, Odubero Olusola, one of the leaders of The Nucleaus group, another NGO, said the commission was acting out a script.
“We have our fear that there is a game plan to disenfranchise many Lagosians.
“It is unfortunate that a programme that is supposed to be transparent, and an organisation that should be free and fair to everyone as a non-biased umpire, is playing hide-and-seek.
“They have refused to address us. We believe there is a foul play somewhere. We need them to come out and explain to us why there are lapses and what they want to do to rectify them,” he said.
Convener, Activists for Good Governance, Mr Declan Ihekaire, asked INEC to put its house in order.
Ihekaire said, “Elections are rigged right from the registration point. If the voter cards are not given to eligible voters, they will be discouraged. These abnormalities are ways of disenfranchising many Nigerians in the 2015 elections. We are saying that any attempt to manipulate the elections will be resisted.”
The Resident Commissioner, Ogunmola, however, said INEC was having problems with logistics which were being addressed.
He assured the protesters that all eligible voters in the state would be registered and issued the PVCs before the general elections.
He said, “The easiest thing to do is to criticise. It is easier to talk from outside, but as an insider, I understand the nitty-gritty of the issues involved. When we started on Friday, we didn’t start well, but on Saturday it picked up and the momentum is being sustained.
“Our initial plan was to make the exercise last for a three-day period. A lot of people misconstrued that to mean after the third day, the distribution would end. But that is not so. We are only using the three days to distribute at locations closest to the people. After the three days, we will move the materials to our local government offices and set up tables for people to come and collect. And collection will continue until very close to the elections. This was what we did in Ekiti and Osun states.”
Addressing the concern over the sharp drop of voters in Lagos from 6.1 million in 2011 to 4.8 million, Ogunmola said the commission did it in the interest of the voters.
He said, “Some people are talking about 6.1 million voters in 2011, and that it is now 4.8 million. If we maintain the 6.1 million figure, we will be deceiving those whose names have been removed. Some people did not have their fingerprints captured in 2011, and the technology that will be used in 2015 in accrediting people is fingerprints-based.
“So when your fingerprint is taken by the card reader, it will compare it with what you have in your permanent voter’s card and either validate or invalidate you.”
Ogunmola said the continuous voter registration would begin in the state for residents whose names did not appear on the voter register, while the distribution of the PVC would hold from December 3 to December 8.