The Peter Obi Support Network (POSN) has condemned the alleged intimidation of people of south-east origin at some voter registration centres especially in Lagos State. The group also described as unacceptable, the prevention of voters’ registration exercises in some parts of Imo State.
It is becoming a gradual but persistent trend in Lagos State for Igbo people in Lagos State to face serious challenges during registrations or elections proper. In the past few elections, areas considered as Igbo strongholds in Lagos State are marred with violence just to ensure that the Igbo in Lagos State do not vote.
It is still fresh in the history of Lagos politics how the Oba of Lagos threatened drive all the Igbo in Lagos into the Lagoon if they refuse to vote for the APC government in the state as it was alleged that the Igbo in Lagos State that year favoured Jimmy Agbaje of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Recall that in Agbaje was 2015 PDP’s Lagos State Governorship candidate, but he lost out to the eventual winner Akinwunmi Ambode of the APC
POSN stated these while reacting to series of viral videos of unbelievable intimidation of adults, who had peacefully attempted to contribute their civic quota to the democratic process of obtaining their PVCs. The group therefore called on security agencies, to collaborate with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to tame the ugly trend. The statement was signed by the spokesperson, Sani Saeed Altukry.
The group further implored INEC to distribute more equipment and personnel to the allocated registration centres in Lagos State particularly and other states of the federation that require same urgent attention to effectively register all adults, who desire to exercise their civic rights in 2023 and beyond.
Part of the statement read: “We condemn, in the strongest possible terms, the intimidation and violence evidently meted out to the people from the south-east origin resident in Lagos State, who went to exercise their fundamental rights of getting registered as voters to be eligible to perform their simple civic duty of voting during elections in Nigeria.
“Few weeks ago, similar incidents were reported about people being chased out of a registration centre in Imo State by those alleged to be armed bandits. These developments in our democratic polity are extremely worrying and should be of great concern to our security agencies.
“We commend INEC for establishing emergency registration centres in Enugu, Lagos and other locations, which has given eligible youths the opportunity to register while we continue to call for extension of the registration deadline beyond June 30 so as not to disenfranchise millions of eligible Nigerians who are willing to exercise their civic duties.”
