By Emeka Umeagbalasi, Chinwe Umeche, and Chidimma Udegbunam
▪︎ Lagos REC (Olu Agbaje) must be withdrawn from the State over Igbo migrant genocidal comment/anti Igbo PVC posture
The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) is writing Your Commission, seeking on behalf of tens of millions of conscionable Nigerians, urgent and inexcusable public answers to the 13 raised critical questions relating to the 2022/2023 PVC Distribution and the final status of the National Register of Voters ahead of the country’s crucial Feb 25, 2023 Presidential Poll. This urgent letter of ours is part of our priceless advocacy at deepening democracy including inclusive election and popular participation in Nigeria or any part thereof.
It is the uncompromising position of Intersociety that ‘the gateway into popular, credible and inclusive election especially presidential poll is massive enfranchisement by INEC of all citizens of voting age’’ which the Commission must do without discrimination as to ethnicity, religion, place of birth, gender and class’. Negatively speaking, ‘the gateway into massive poll rigging especially in the Nigeria’s presidential poll is massive disenfranchisement of citizens of voting age on the grounds of their ethnic identity, religion, place of work, gender and class’.
Today, under Your Commission’s watch, millions of citizens of voting age of full blood Nigerian citizenship have been denied voting right by being denied registration and issuance of permanent voters’ cards after having been registered. These range from massive denial of the rights of the citizens to be registered and issued with PVCs to personal data theft, destruction, diversion and impersonation. This is shockingly to the extent that tens of millions are denied registration and issuance of PVCs and particularly among them are non Muslims of Southern East and South residencies and large number of their brothers and sisters living outside their regions where they reside or work. Affected too are non Muslims in other parts of the country. Contrarily, constitutional citizens of voting age involving non Christians in the North and other parts of the country are so maximally captured as registered voters and issued with PVCs that millions of children of underage and illegal migrants in the North sharing same faith with them are so sought after by INEC and registered as “voters” and issued with PVCs.
Consequently sir, INEC must provide answers to the following critical public interest questions:
• What is the State by State breakdown of the PVCs distributed across the country by INEC between 12th Dec 2022 and 5th Feb 2023?
• How many of the 20m uncollected PVCs since 2019 (as disclosed on 31st May 2022 by Mohammed Haruna, INEC’s National Commissioner for FCT, Nasarawa, Plateau and Kaduna) and 9.5m uncollected PVCs since 2022 have been distributed across the country?
• How many of the newly printed 4m PVCs involving registered citizens with transfer of their PVCs were distributed across the country on State by State basis?
• What is the number of the uncollected PVCs since 2019 and those of 2022 remaining uncollected across the 36 States and the FCT as at 5th Feb 2023?
• What is the ethno-religious and gender percentage of the distributed PVCs and the remaining or uncollected PVCs as at 5th Feb 2023?
• What is the number of registered children of underage and illegal migrants involved in the PVC distribution gone by across the 36 States and the FCT?
• INEC had on 6th Jan 2023 through its National Commissioner on Voter Education (Festus Okoye Esquire) during the Channels TV’s Politics Today, admitted that “INEC is cleaning up underage voters from its record”: What is the fate or status of the estimated eight million children of underage and two million illegal migrants from the Voters’ List ahead of the Feb 25, 2023 Presidential Poll?
• There are also estimated four million fake names compiled from booklets of passport photographs, posters of dead persons and fake names and images from outside the country: What is the fate of status of such fake or fictitious names estimated at four million ahead of the Feb 25, 2023 Presidential Poll?
• What is the actual number of registered voters or the final number of registered voters with which INEC is organizing the Feb 25, 2023 Presidential Poll?
• What is the actual number of registered voters with PVCs ahead of the Feb 25, 2023 Presidential Poll and their State by State breakdown?
• What is the fate or status of the estimated 10m compromised PVCs and their VINs, disclosed and admitted on behalf of INEC on 12th Dec 2022 by its National Commissioner in charge of FCT, Nasarawa, Plateau and Kaduna, Mohammed Haruna ahead of the Feb 25, 2023 Presidential Poll?
• What is the fate or status of the estimated six million stolen or diverted PVCs that disappeared from INEC custody regarding the Feb 25, 2023 Presidential Poll?
• What concrete measures are being put in place by INEC to ensure the deployment of IReV, BVAS and PVC accreditation/voting across board across the 36 States and the FCT on Feb 25, 2023 Presidential Poll without discriminatory recourse to unofficial dual INEC policies of sticking on IReV, BVAS and PVC accreditation/voting in the South and allowing manual voting IReV, BVAS and PVC bypassing in the North especially in the States of Kano, Katsina, Kaduna, Jigawa, Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara in North-West; Borno, Bauchi, Yobe and Adamawa in North-East; and Niger State in North-Central, independently identified as “Nigeria’s center of presidential poll rigging”, as it was the case in 2015 and 2019?
Lagos REC, Agbaje Must Be Stopped From Breeding Ethnic Cleansing Against South-Easterners
Following widespread outcries that greeted the brazen partisanship of the Resident Electoral Commissioner for Lagos State, Olusegun Agbaje, over his anti South-East or Igbo genocidal comments/PVC posture, the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) is strongly calling for immediate removal of the REC. Live and verifiable video clips have in the past few days saturated the social media spaces showing systematic and orchestrated plots by the REC to deprive the Nigerian citizens of South-East extraction resident in different parts of Lagos with particular reference to Oshodi area of their PVCs and fundamental human and political rights to participate and vote in the Feb 25, 2023 Presidential Poll. Apart from genocidally referring to them as “South-East migrants”, the REC did not hide his hatred of the non native residents.
By his hostile and hateful comments, he ended up stopping at in breeding a ground for “Election Day and Post Election Day” ethnic cleansing against the non native residents.
▪︎Umeagbalasi, Umeche, and Udegbunam are principal officers of International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law.