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)
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”.
- Channels.
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