INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega

By James Sowole 

The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo State Tuesday challenged the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, to name the parties fingered in the illegal voters’ register in the state.

The parties gave the challenge in separate statements signed by Mr Ayo Fadaka and Mr Idowu Ajanaku, the Media Adviser to Akeredolu Campaign Organisation and PDP Director of Publicity in the state respectively.

Fadaka said Jega’s claim affirmed the earlier alarm raised by the party accusing the ruling Labour Party (LP) of perpetrating the illegal registration using biometric data with a view to smuggle data collected into the INEC voters register.

“This claim confirms our strident claim that a political party in this state actually embarked on the prosecution of an illegal registration with a view to smuggling the datas collected into the INEC Voters Register.

“This action is been undertaken because in the fraudulent minds of the perpetrators of this crime, it will give them an advantage over other parties in the forthcoming election,” he said.

Fadaka recalled that PDP had alerted the people of the state and the commission about the illegal registration, saying “we had alerted the nation that illegal registration was being conducted in the Government House and some few headquarters of some agencies of government.

“Since the INEC Chairman has taken it upon himself to join us in declaring this evil agenda, we urge him to go the extra mile of naming the culprits and also call on the Inspector General of Police and the Director of State Security Service (SSS) to move very decisively in arresting the brains behind this act and recover the data already collected so as to stop them from making any attempt to incorporate it with the register,” he said.

Similarly, Ajanaku commended the INEC boss for raising the issue, saying “we want him to go a step further by naming the party or parties involved in the illegal exercise.”

“For us in ACO, we want to state the fact that all the political parties including the ACN have the official registration of voters in Ondo State as given out earlier by (INEC), anything outside this official one will not be accepted by ACN for the election in Ondo State especially now that the INEC chairman has confirmed that the commission is not involved in any form of registration going in Ondo State.

“We also call on the security agents to heed the call of the INEC boss by arresting and prosecuting the individuals involved in this criminal act across Ondo State,” he said.