The Administrative Secretary, Independent National Electoral Commission, Ogun State, Dickson Atiba, has said the allegation made by the State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, last week, that 600,000 'alien' Permanent Voter Cards were wrongfully sent to the state by the commission, was untrue.
He said this on Monday when the state chapter of the Committee for the Defence Human Rights, embarked on a protest march to the INEC office in Magbon, Abeokuta.
He admitted that some cards, meant for Edo State, were brought to Ogun, arguing that they were not fake or alien.
Atiba said the total number of registered voters in the state was 1,795,794 and the total number of PVCs brought to the state was 1,368,75 while 795,962 had been distributed.
He said, "The number distributed so far accounted for 44.7 per cent of registered voters and not 40.6 per cent as being speculated."
On the issue of 600,000 'alien' cards, Atiba admitted that a few cards from Edo State were discovered in the state, stressing that INEC had no 'alien' cards as alleged by the Governor.
He noted that people had been collecting their cards.
He, however, appealed to all concerned stakeholders to be patient with the commission as the distribution process was still ongoing.
The state chairman, CDHR, Folarin Olayinka, however, condemned the INEC for the slow pace of distribution of the PVC in the state.
Olayinka, who also condemned the sudden appearance of 600,000 'alien' PVCs in the state, said it was disheartening that as of February 17, only 40.86 per cent of PVCs had been distributed in the state.
He said, "It is disheartening that a supposed upright constitutionally-established electioneering body, saddled with the responsibility of conducting a free, fair, credible and acceptable general elections in Nigeria, having achieved a better performance in 2011, is now demonstrating retrogressive, incompetence and bias towards the conduct of the forthcoming 2015 general elections."
He asked the INEC to justify how some North-Eastern states, where Boko Haram insurgents were holding sway, recorded higher performance in terms of PVC distribution with Borno, Adamawa and Yobe having 68.28, 85.19 and 74.95 per cent PVCs distribution respectively, the PUNCH reports.
Olayinka added, "Why hoarding the Ogun State PVCs? What is the crime of the people of Ogun State to warrant the hoarding of PVCs? What is INEC’s intention to wilfully disenfranchise and deprive the people of Ogun State their fundamental rights?"
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