Guardian News | Police Foil Voters’ Registration Scam In Edo, Jigawa

[NewsCaster]

Police Foil Voters' Registration Scam In Edo, Jigawa
22 January 2011, 1:00 am

INEC Seeks Ministry's Aid On Publicity For Polls  PLANS by unscrupulous politicians and their allies in the society to gain undue advantage for themselves in this year's general elections by abusing the on-going voters' registration process are coming to light as the exercise continues nationwide.   

In Edo State, 11 people allegedly brought into Ihievbe Ward Three in Owan East Local Council, Edo State by a serving senator from the area to obtain the voter card illegally have been arrested by security agents.

They were reportedly brought to the area in hired commercial buses from a neighbouring community and paid N1,500 each apparently to inflate the figure of eligible voters in the ward.

The suspects were accosted by the indigenes of Ihievbe and reportedly confessed that they were hired to come and register in the area.

Similarly, the Jigawa Police Command has paraded a 19-year-old suspect Kawu Ado Aujara who was found to have registered twice at two different polling units.

The state Commissioner of Police Hashimu Argungu, who briefed the media at the police headquarters in Dutse yesterday said the suspect was arrested in Aujara Village in Jahun Local Council with two cards bearing the same name Ado Kawu.

"It was discovered that one of the cards was registered at Mahuta quarters, while the other card was registered and obtained from Aujara Makera Area," he added.

The suspect, Aujara, said: "I had registered in the second place and obtained my voter's card. Then a security man came to tell me that my card at Mahuta quarters polling unit was ready, I came to receive it and I was arrested when I was discovered to be in possession of two voters' cards with the same name."

Argungu said the suspect would soon be charged to court.

Meanwhile, Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, yesterday sought a working collaboration with the Ministry of Information and Communications with a view to enlightening Nigerians on their duties and responsibilities ahead of the April general elections.

Receiving the Minister at the ministry, Mr. Labaran Maku, who led a delegation of his principal officers to INEC, Jega said Nigerians needed to be enlightened on their rights so that they could elect credible leaders for the country in the next general elections.

Maku said they were at INEC to firm up the collaboration arrangement, noting that as the ministry charged with disseminating information on government activities, the visit would give them further insight into the arrangement being put in place by the commission to deliver free, fair and credible elections this April.

Also, National Chairman, All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, has tasked INEC to deliver on its promise to provide a clean voter register to be used for the general elections. This, according to him, is the basis for free, fair and credible elections in the country.  Similarly, the Hope Democratic Party (HDP) has charged INEC to justify the billions of naira voted for the commission to conduct this year's general election.

The party's Presidential Candidate, Ambrose Owuru, has also challenged President Goodluck Jonathan to a public debate on the Niger Delta and his economic policies.

Owuru, who expressed dismay that Jega presided over President Jonathan's registration in Otueke, Bayelsa State last Saturday, said INEC appeared ill-equipped to achieve its projection of registering at least 70 million Nigerians in the on-going voter registration exercise.

His words: "They (INEC) are ill-equipped at this stage, so they should be monitored properly. Nigeria has budgeted so much money and we don't want any excuse. We have campaigned hard for Jega to be so funded.  With one week almost gone, I do not see the 70 million projection possible. Last time he insisted on doing elections in January and we told him it was not possible. He needs to consult more."

In a related development, a former Commissioner of Justice in Ekiti State, Obafemi Adewale, has raised the alarm that "six days after the voters' exercise began nationwide, no single prospective voter in any of the 14 towns and villages in the 12 wards in Ijero Council of Ekiti State has been registered, as a result of failure of INEC to provide DDC machines in the entire local government area."

Adewale charged: "We want to know what steps are being taken to address the situation and also whether INEC would extend the registration period, in view of these obvious lapses."

But seven days into exercise nationwide, prospective voters will today start to register in the New Bakassi, Cross River State in line with INEC position on the old wards of Bakassi.

The registration exercise, according to INEC officials, is to start at Day Spring 1&11 area across the water. 

Governor Liyel Imoke, in a meeting with the INEC officials, sanctioned the commission's decision, saying it was taken in order not to disenfranchise the Bakassi people.

With the October 10, 2002 World Court judgment, technically Bakassi ceases to exist in Cross River State, Nigeria but the Federal Government has not come out with any law deleting Bakassi from the Constitution and its map or delineating an area as New Bakassi.

In Plateau, State Chairman of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Amos Gizo, has called on residents to come out en masse and register in the on-going voters' registration exercise to enable them vote out the current Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administration.

Gizo, in a statement yesterday also announced that the party has approved the selection of Col. Fidelis Attahiru (rtd) as the running mate of Ambassador Chris Musa Giwa in the April 2011 gubernatorial election in the state.

But the Senator representing Edo East Senatorial District, Yisa Braimoh, has petitioned the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Zone 5, Benin, alleging that officials of Owan East Local Council, in collaboration with officials of the State Security Service (SSS) personnel in the area, were arresting innocent citizens of the area who decided to register in Ihievbe.

The petition signed by the Solicitors to the senator, Tunde Oisamoje & Co, argued that "residency is not a condition precedent for anybody to register in any place. What the law requires is that you register in the centre you intend to cast your vote."

The lawyers wrote: "We are using this medium to request you to use your good offices to order the release of all those arrested by the DPO and the SSS who have become agents of the Action Congress of Nigeria in Owan East LGA. Our client is a lawmaker; he will therefore not encourage anyone to break any law of our land.

"The voters' registration exercise is not a partisan exercise; the DPO and the SSS official must stop colluding with these people to turn this exercise into partisan issue."

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