PVCs collection: Ohanaeze accuses INEC of disenfranchising Ndigbo
- Ohanaeze Ndigbo has alleged the the INEC is disenfranchising the southeast people
- The group's president general, John Nnia Nwodo, said he had visited many registration areas in the region before coming to the conclusion
- According to him, the group is prepared to give logistics to INEC to register people who turn out for the ongoing continuous voter registration
A socio-political Igbo group has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of deliberately disenfranchising the people of the southeast region.
Ohanaeze Ndigbo said the electoral body is denying the southeast people access to the ongoing continuous voter registration.
The president general of the group, John Nnia Nwodo, on Monday, March 12, while making the allegations insisted that it was not just mere talk, but facts that emerged out of investigation. He made the allegation when the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Enugu state, Emeka Ononamadu, paid him courtesy visit.
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He said he had visited many registration areas in the region before coming to the conclusion.
Nwodo said: “I am of the conclusion that INEC has deliberately denied this area of registration materials in order to ensure that we are under registered. I say this not because I am the President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo but as a lawyer who respects evidence.
“Let me use my home as example. I come from Ukehe in Igbo-Etiti Local Government Area. Last week, I went home to check what was going on, but my local government area had the presence of INEC in less than three polling units. In my ward, INEC was present in only one polling unit in my village.
"Although the INEC staff was very hardworking, the maximum registration they can achieve in a day was 48 people and there were twice the number waiting who were not registered. My projection is that in two days, they were able to register 96 voters against over 500."
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He, however, noted that the Ohanaeze Ndigbo is prepared to give logistics to INEC to register people who turn out for the exercise. “If you want us to pay to hire more machines, we will are ready to do so. If you want us to pay for staff that you may not have enough to deploy to our places, we are prepared to raise money from Igbos.
“Our people in the north told me that in the queues, the indigenes are treated before them. And I like to use this opportunity of your presence here to ask that you send this message to your headquarters. This kind of discrimination of Igbos in the registration is not good and healthy for our national polity," he lamented.
Ononamadu said since his assumption of duty, he had gone round the seventeen local government areas of Enugu state. He said he activated and re-activated the mechanism of continuous voter registration in the area.
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Legit.ng earlier reported that INEC had said it will burn all unclaimed Permanent Voters Card across Nigeria.
The new Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Ondo state, Rufus Akeju, said the PVCs will be burnt before the 2019 election.
He said all attempts had been made by the commission thorough sensitisation campaign to reach out to the affected voters to collect their PVCs.
INEC official at Abuja court on Legit.ng TV
Source: Legit.ng
