By Nwafor Okafor
The Peter Obi Support Network (POSN), has condemned what it called the intimidation of people of South-East origin at voters registration centres in Lagos State as well as the prevention of voters’ registration exercises in some parts of Imo state.
POSN 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, called on security agencies, in collaboration with Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to tame the trend.
In the Statement signed by the group’s spokesman, Sani Saeed Altukry implored INEC to distribute more equipment and personnel to the allocated registration centres in Lagos State particularly, and other states of the federation that would require same urgent attention to effectively register all adults, who desired to exercise their civic rights in 2023 and beyond.
The group’s statement read partly”We condemn, in the strongest 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.
“We commend the electoral body for their recent press release, which clearly suggests they are genuinely working towards making sure that any eligible Nigerian desirous of obtaining a PVC will be granted such civic right by the Commission.
“However, we are of the view that 209 additional machines will not be enough to ease the congestion. If INEC is serious about solving this problem, it should be distributing 1000 machines, not 209,” the group stated.
