Not less than two days to the end of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) deadline for registration of Permanent Voters Card (PVC), there is tension in the South West over difficulties to collect registered voter’s PVCs of qualified voters.
Apart from the inability of INEC machines to register eligible Voters in record time, which has not only resulted in the large numbers of people who daily gather at the registration centres across the south west region, the difficulty has also resulted in palpable anxiety in most of these centres.
Newsmen who visited some centres authoritatively report, that except drastic measures are taken, there might be trouble as frustrated eligible voters, who feels they are being deliberately schemed out of the process, might take the law into their hands.
Reports came that a large crowd gathered at INEC Distribution centres in some parts of Lagos, Ogun and Oyo states.
A senior INEC official in one of their offices in the South West state, who spoke to our correspondent on the condition of anonymity said, while he was not qualified to comment on issues like this, to the public. He, however, gave an insight into the problem at hand.
He said:
“If you must know, part of the problem is that so many people are doing multiple registrations, what these people don’t know, is that, once it is detected, their names will be knocked off the INEC list of eligible voters in the forthcoming elections.
“Although this exercise will be ending on Sunday, 31st July 2022, the Nigerians that are today rushing to be registered, failed to take advantage of the exercise when it began over a year ago. Nigerians are known for this eleventh-hour rush in matters like this. Besides, Nigerians who were initially not interested in voting in next year’s election suddenly had a change of mind to vote because of the bad government of the present administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
The electorates are this time around determined to vote the APC government at the centre out of office.
“Another possible reason for the rush can be attributed to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s open confessions, that he will continue with President Buhari’s mal-administration.”
Newsmen emphasised that the current exercise is getting too late, and as such, there is no way INEC will risk extending this particular exercise.
He added, that the point most Nigerians seem not to realise, is that it cost a lot of money to carry out this voter registration exercise.
It was reported that they have been getting a lot of complaints from people in Lagos and Ogun State who although, have long been registered and were given temporary PVC but were yet to get the permanent card.
He furthered that people in some local government area Councils in these states are deliberately denying non-natives from collecting their PVC because they suspect will not vote for the APC presidential flag bearer in the forthcoming elections.
Instead, hoarding these cards in their respective Local Government Councils, while stressing that this problem is more pronounced in areas like Mushin, Lagos Island and Ajegunle in Lagos state, while Ifo Local Government Area Council in Ogun state, is where non-indigenes PVCs are being hoarded by some unscrupulous local government officials in Lagos