By SIMON EBEGBULEM
BENIN—THE Secretary to the Edo State Government, Mr Pally Iriase, yesterday, raised  alarm over alleged attempt to disenfranchise 13 of the 22 wards in Owan Federal Constituency of the state in the ongoing voter registration exercise.

He alleged that the selection of the nine wards, where registration had commenced was skewed in favour of the current members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the National Assembly from the area. He urged the  Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC,  to release the registration machines, materials and men for the exercise in the 13 wards identified in order not to violate the fundamental rights of the people of the identified parts of Owan Federal Constituency.

Mr Iriase, who also is the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, candidate for the forthcoming House of Representatives election for Owan Federal Constituency, lamented that “as at today, the fourth day of the exercise, 13 wards of the 22 wards that make up Owan Federal constituency have not seen any INEC registration official nor have they sighted any registration machines and materials.

“Registration has commenced in wards 2,5,7 and 8 in Owan East Local Government Area and Wards 1,2,3,5,7,8,9,10 and 11 of Owan West Local Government Area. The selection of the nine wards where machines have been deployed by INEC in Edo State defies logic as they were not serially nor alphabetically selected. Rather, the selection of the wards was skewed in favour of the current National Assembly members, a Senator and a Representative, who hail from the two councils and  are contesting in the April 2011 elections on the platform of the PDP,” he said.

He agued that the “registration of voters is clearly time bound and the stipulated time of two weeks did not envisage staggered take off in any part of Nigeria.”

Secondly, I have made inquiries at INEC Headquarters in Abuja and have been told that all machines and materials have been dispatched to all Local Governments so who is holding on to the machines and materials for the these 13 Local Governments?

However, the spokes persons of INEC in the state Mrs Imodu Sule, who was contacted, agreed that there were areas the commission was yet to dispatch machines, “ but we are expecting some today and we will handle the situation”.