The All Progressives Congress in Niger State on Sunday condemned in strong terms the postponement of the dates for the distribution of Permanent Voter Cards in the state by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
“The situation is even more worrisome to us in APC with the discoveries that the particulars of voters in seven wards of Shiroro, Gbako and other Local Government Areas are missing and they may not get their PVC,” the party said.
The party in a statement signed by its Publicity Secretary, Comrade Jonathan Vatsa, and made available to The Eagle Online, said: “The areas excluded from the PVC collection have always been the stronghold of APC in previous elections in the state.
“No fewer than one million names of voters registered were missing from the lists of those to get the PVC.
“The inference now fall in perspective on why in the last Niger East by-Elections some of our supporters couldn’t cast their votes because their names were missing from the voters register.
“What worries us in the APC is that INEC said that there should be Continuous Voters Registration (CVR). The pertinent question is, what becomes of those who have earlier registered but their names could not be traced on the INEC register? as such many of our supporters may be disenfranchised before 2015 general elections thereby giving way for rigging and all other manipulations of elections in Niger State were notorious for.
“It is not sure of the neutrality of the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Dr Emmanuel Onucheyo who has subjected himself to the whims and caprice of the government in power.
“This has justified our previous call that if a free and fair election is to be conducted in Niger State the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Niger State must be removed or redeployed to where his material cravings will be tolerated.”