The Peoples Democratic Party on Sunday asked the Independent National Electoral Commission to investigate the level of involvement of some of its staff in the lopsided distribution of the Permanent Voter Cards.
The party made the call while reacting to the postponement of the general elections to March 28.
The party, in a press statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, declared that it is in support of the reasons offered by INEC in shifting the polls, which bother mainly on security concerns in the North East zone.
The party stated that the time lag has provided ample opportunity for INEC to look inward and probe, including the ad-hoc staff, on their roles in the PVCs debacle.
It would be recalled that Prof. Attahiru Jega had relied on powers of the Commission as provided by section 26 (1) of the Electoral Act 2010 (As Amended) and an advisory from security forces over their inability to provide adequate security for the election, in postponing the election.
“However, on account of the reasons adduced by the security forces and INEC, we believe that this shift, which is still within the constitutionally-allowed period, can be accommodated,” Metuh stated.
He added: “INEC must also use this period to attend to our earlier call to address the issue of denial of PVCs to non-indigenes in select states.
“This is especially as the INEC Chairman himself acknowledged that only. 45, 829, 808 representing 66.58 percent of the total number of registered voters have received their PVCs.
“INEC itself has confirmed that as at last week, well over two million voter cards were either not yet delivered to INEC by its contractors, lost or stolen.
“For instance, we are aware that in Borno state, 90 percent of the PVCs were handed over to state government officials, who distributed them by proxy contrary to laid-down procedures.
“Also, in Owerri North Local Government of Imo state, the LGA of our National Woman Leader, only new registered voters have received their PVCs. Citizens with old voters card have not had any replaced and this scenario abounds in other places.”
Metuh stated that the PDP hoped INEC would use the period to ensure that all identified irregularities were eliminated to guarantee that registered voters across the country received their PVCs urgently.
The party added: “Also, INEC, ahead of the polls, should adequately demonstrate to Nigerians the application and practicability of card readers to the allotted time for vote.
“For the avoidance of doubt, we state clearly that the postponement
neither confers advantage on our party and our candidates, nor can it ever be described as a set back to our democracy.
“The ultimate issue in this regard is the conduct of free, fair and credible elections.”