TheCable

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of a deliberate attempt to disenfranchise voters in states under its control.

Condemning the three-day distribution of the Permanent Voter’s Cards (PVCs) in 12 states, APC alleged that most registered voters could not collect their PVCs as a result of INEC’s “programmed incompetence to swing the elections in favour of the PDP”.

The party called on Attahiru Jega, a professor and chairman of INEC to set up a panel to look into the exercise.

“There is no doubt that this programmed incompetence has emanated from just one source, the ICT unit of INEC, with the intent of sabotaging the PVC distribution process in key states,” APC said in a statement issued by Lai Mohammed, its national publicity secretary, on Sunday.

“This is highly suspicious, against the background of available information that the PDP-led federal government is working to disenfranchise voters in opposition strongholds during the forthcoming polls.

“If INEC is to organize a free, credible and transparent election next February, it must quickly return to the drawing board to fashion out how to ensure that all Nigerians who are eligible to vote are able to do so without hindrance, and also purge itself of the fifth columnists within its ranks who are bent on sabotaging the elections.

“We know their two-pronged game plan to skew the 2015 general elections in favour of the PDP. One is to mess up the collection of PVCs in states with the highest number of registered voters which also fall under the control of the APC, with the aim of suppressing the votes in those states.

“The second approach is to programme the voter’s registration exercise in those states, which also have a high number of people who are due for registration, so the states will not meet the requirement to participate in next year’s election since INEC would not have finished the voter’s registration process in those states.”

The party further accused the electoral body of hatching a plan to postpone the election in APC states to a later date in order to enable the federal government perpetrate widespread intimidation and prevent free and fair elections.

On Saturday, Bola Tinubu, the national leader of the party alleged that INEC is planning to rig the 2015 election in favour of President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP.

Meanwhile, INEC has reacted to the allegation, denying that it conspired with any group to undermine the exercise.

The commission said it was making efforts to resolve the challenges experienced during the PVC distribution, assuring that it is committed towards ensuring that every properly registered voter get their permanent voter card.

“It is completely false that INEC has removed the records of 1.4 million persons from the register of voters compiled in 2011 in Lagos State,” Kayode Idowu, the chief press secretary to INEC chairman, said in a statement on Sunday.

“It is true that at the end of the 2011 general registration exercise, the commission announced a figure of 6.1 million registrants in the state. But when that data was subjected to the Automated Fingerprints Identification System software, 82,892 multiple registrations were eliminated.

“Also, there was the technical challenge of loss of data and incomplete data affecting about one million records – mostly in 1,792 polling units that were identified and made public before the present exercise. That was why and how the Post-Business Rule figure for Lagos State (on the basis of which PVCs were printed) came down to about 4.6 million registrants.”

Idowu added that INEC has made provision for eligible persons whose PVCs could not be printed due to data loss or defective data.

He said the data of those in that category would be recaptured between November 12 and November 17.