Agbaje accuses INEC of withholding non-indigenes’ PVCs in Lagos

* allegation unfounded – INEC

The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of withholding the Permanent Voter’s Cards (PVCs) of non-indigenes resident in the state.

Agbaje, through his campaign organization said INEC was conniving with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to disenfranchise non-indigenes in the state.

In a swift reaction, INEC described the allegation as baseless, unfounded and unsubstantiated.

A statement by Agbaje campaign organization’s Director of Media and Publicity, Felix Oboagwina, said the INEC personnel, acting the script of APC, were undertaking discriminatory distribution of PVCs by withholding the cards of non-indigenes largely suspected of being unsympathetic to the ruling APC in the state.

Describing the trend as immoral, illegal and xenophobic, the campaign organization demanded that the Commission should wade into the matter, restore normalcy and bring conniving officials to book.

“These unscrupulous INEC workers deny cards to potential and duly registered voters whose names do not sound Yoruba or Hausa,” Oboagwina said, adding that “Our fear is that at the end of the day, these unclaimed PVCs will be used to do proxy-voting for APC or end up in the lagoon or refuse dump.”

Reacting to the allegation, INEC’s spokesman in the state, Femi Akinbiyi, said the PDP candidate should come up with a proof of the allegation.

He wondered why Agbaje is coming up with the allegation after the commission had distributed over 5 million PVCs in the state, adding that its personnel were not checking the tribe or ethnicity of the PVC bearers before distributing the cards.