By Sam Eyoboka

ETHNIC minority groups in Lagos have thrown their weight behind the recent postponement of the general elections by another six weeks, appealing to Nigerians to remain calm and mobilise fellow citizens who have not collected their permanent voter cards to use the period of the extension to do so.

The rally organised by Ijaw National Congress, INC, was attended by different ethnic groups in the South-South geo-political region as well as supporters from the South West and South-East zones, who took the podium to canvass support for President Goodluck Jonathan.

They include South-South Women Forum, Ijaw Youth Council, Ijaw Women Group, Ijaw National Congress, traditional rulers, professional groups among others.

The carnival-like event was spiced up with traditional and cultural displays from groups from the Niger Delta as well as the Atilogwu cultural group from the South East.

Speaking during the rally at the Nigerian Navy grounds, Apapa, Lagos, an activist, Ms Ankio Briggs, noted that the shift in date for the 2015 general elections would enable more eligible voters to get their permanent voter cards, PVCs, before the election date.

Briggs argued: “Before now, I have been calling for the postponement of the elections, because you can’t conduct an election under this kind of destabilised condition, where over 30 million Nigerians who were dully registered to vote have not received their voter cards. There is something wrong with that.

“In the South, less than 40 percent have received their voter cards while in the North about 80 percent have received their cards, and in a situation where the North claims to be more than the South without any statistical data, you already can see that there is a problem there.”

Also speaking, President, Ijaw Professionals (Lagos), Amagbe Kentebe, echoed the minds of many at the event, saying: “The purpose of the rally is to give support to President Jonathan. We, therefore, call on everyone to support and vote massively for him at the coming presidential poll.”

Similarly, Regent Youmor, an Ijaw Nation Peace Ambassador, said that the gathering was a sensitisation effort in support of President Jonathan, noting: “We the Ijaw elders under the Ijaw National Congress, INC, Ijaw Youth Council, IYC; Ijaw Peoples Assembly, IJA; Ijaw People in Lagos, IPL; Ijaw Peoples Monitoring Group, IPMG, felt it is necessary for us to invite our neighbours who are indigenes and non-indigenes such as the Igbos, Yorubas to come together in Lagos to sensitise them.”