There’s A Grand Design By INEC, Jonathan To Rig Lagos, Says Tinubu

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, News, Politics Saturday, November 8th, 2014

Former Governor of Lagos State and national leader of the All Progressive Congress (APC) says there is a grand conspiracy between the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC and President Goodluck Jonathan to rig election in Lagos State due to the flop of the Permanent Voters Card (PVCs) distribution in the state.

At a news briefing at the APC Secretariat, Lagos, Nigeria on Saturday, the former governor stated equivocally that INEC had failed woefully in the distribution of the PVCs in Lagos, describing it as a deliberate ploy by the presidency to rig the coming election in Lagos by conniving with INEC.

According to Tinubu, “This exercise is not acceptable. INEC is colluding with the presidency to rig the forthcoming election. This is a deliberate collusion as far as I am concern. It is inexcusable. INEC has merged with Jonathan to form a formidable rigging body. We will stand to protect our rights. In 2011, a total of 6,247,845 people registered. Surprisingly, therecent figure claimed by INEC had whittled that figure down to 4.8 million. The reasons for this sudden and steep drop are shrouded in mystery and suspicion due to lack of INEC’s transparency.

“Polling units whose registered voters have been reduced to zero are on the increase and the number of such empty units now stands at a staggering 1,801 million. The question INEC needs to answer is how did all these names get wiped down to such zero? It boggles the mind that in a densely populated and politically active state such as Lagos, there can be so many units with no registered voters at all. This bellied the recent history of voting in Lagos. It makes no logical sense.”

“They told us that only 11 Local Government is ready and rather than outright boycott, the party endured the frustration and asked the public, especially APC members to go for it. Our reports from the field so far showed that the exercise has failed and unacceptable. In some instance, you don’t find INEC starting on time, the cards were not sorted out and were inadequate.

“Even in the 11 LGs, there is so much confusion and disorganisation in the distribution such that by the second day of the exercise, just 20 percent has received their PVCs. We must also query INEC as to what percentage of total registered voters the 11 LGs constitute. INEC has set in motion a process dripping in doubt and susceptible to fraud and manipulation. One is forced to believe that INEC was not this incompetent but that it now acted in direct collusion with the ruling PDP to disenfranchise eligible voters and rig the elections,” added Tinubu.

He said going by this shoddy and disorganised and unreliable method of distributing the PVCs in the 11 Local Governments, INEC had shown its hands were not clean, saying there is no way it would not appear to any reasonable person or analytical mind that there is something amiss.

“There is no assurance that INEC will correct the anomalies in Lagos and be able to register those omitted and new eligible voter. We suspect that some elements are working in cahoots with the ruling party to deliberately bungle the exercise in order to favour the ruling party. INEC has done nothing but a trial run in Lagos. We adjudge this exercise a failure,” he added.