2015: OYO APC ALLEGES PLANS BY FG TO DISENFRANCHISE VOTERS
All Progressives Congress in Oyo State has raised the alarm over the hiccups being witnessed in the distribution of permanent voter cards and continuous voters’ registration in the state by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) alleging it was a clandestine ploy by the Peoples Democratic Party government at the centre to manipulate the 2015 general elections in its favor.
The APC alarm might have stemmed from the near total failure of the distribution of permanent voter cards across the 33 local government areas of Oyo State which officially ended on Tuesday with many prospective voters unable to get their cards while the continuous voters registration exercise commenced on Wednesday with complaints of inefficiency of the system and non-availability of INEC officials in many designated registration centres.
In a statement issued by its director of publicity and strategy, Olawale Sadare, APC accused INEC office in the state of implementing a script from Abuja which had been prepared to reduce the proportion of the envisaged protest votes against the PDP from most parts of the country in the coming general elections.
“The people of Oyo State are being unfairly treated by INEC in the scheme of things. The Commission claimed to have registered an estimated population of 2.7 million voters across the state in 2011 and four years down the line, less than half of the figure have their permanent voter cards produced while the fate of others hangs in the balance. How can we trust INEC when there are noticeable challenges and it continues to pretend that all is well?
“With myriad of problems over the distribution of PVCs unresolved, INEC went ahead to flag off its continuous voters registration exercise in some parts of the state and this turned out to be another charade from day one. With registration gadgets and personnel in short supply, INEC subjected a teeming population of prospective voters to a needless trauma with a view to frustrating and discouraging them from obtaining the voter cards. This is unacceptable as far as the APC is concerned and all their evil ploys shall be resisted.
“It is understandable that a party which could not lay claim to any meaningful projects in the south west states, having been in the saddle for close to five years, must have noticed the writing on the wall as it prepares to present the same inept character as its candidate for next presidential poll. And going by recent developments, we need no soothsayer to tell us that the PDP would not spare any efforts to gag the aggrieved people of Oyo State from voting for a refreshing alternative in APC presidential candidate in 2015.” APC said.
The party also called for immediate action from relevant authorities to create more polling units for residents across the state as it condemned the situation where several people travel kilometer to reach the polling stations nearest to the homes before they could exercise the rights to cast their votes in any elections.
“Oyo State, at the moment, has most of its wards among the largest in the country as these wards keep expanding by the day. Without any corresponding planning for the expansion in communities and increase in human population, hundreds of residents travel kilometers to get to the nearest polling stations and usually, the crowded nature of these polling does not allow free flow of electoral process and thus give room for unscrupulous politicians as well as their compromised accomplices in INEC and security agencies have their way.” The statement added.
