By Olasunkanmi Akoni

Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, yesterday,dismissed explanations being offered by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to defend its non-distribution of the Permanent Voters’ Cards, PVCs, in some parts of the state saying the commission’s request for re-registration, made no sense.

Fashola

The governor and his wife, Abimbola, last Friday went back home disappointed as INEC pasted notices in some wards, including the governor’s Ward G3 Unit E002 in State Junior Grammar School, Itolo Street, Surulere, directing the voters to embark on fresh registration scheduled to start on December 3, 2014, saying the unit had no PVCs.

The governor’s remarks came on the heels of a statement credited to the Resident Electoral Commissioner of the state, Dr. Adekunle Ogunmola, weekend, saying the non-distribution of PVCs at the governor’s and other polling units across the state was due to the loss of data captured during the registration in 2010 occasioned by the crash of the commission’s computing system.

According to the governor: “Honestly, as I said yesterday, (Saturday), I have temporary Voters Card. On one hand, you say we should go and register again, but I have already registered, so why should I register again? It does not make any sense, because anyone can then say the governor registered twice.”

Asserting that his name has been on INEC database since he was 20, when the commission was known as Federal Electoral Commission, FEDECO, Fashola declared: “I have been voting since then. I voted in 1999, 2003, in 2007 and in 2011. Why should they say I should go and re-register?”

Reacting to INEC’s claim that its system crashed resulting in a shortfall in the number of registered voters, Fashola said there is inconsistency in the commission’s utterances, saying it had become hard to believe the electoral body on anything.

He said: “I think they should stop hiding behind a finger and tell us truly what their reasons are. They have failed without any logical explanation for it. The system can’t crash in part. If you store data in one place, it’s either you lose it or recover it. Where is the integrity of INEC if it is telling us that it does not have a data recovery system?”

When Vanguard visited some wards to monitor the ongoing second batch of PVCs distribution in nine local government areas of the state, INEC officials were absent. But on the notice board mounted at the centres, INEC apologized for inability to distribute the PVCs without stating the reasons. It only advised those who registered in the ward to come for fresh registration from December 3, 2014.