Emmanuel Adeyemi, Lokoja
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Thursday, said it decided to issue Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State the controversial temporary voter’s card because the commission did not want to infringe on his fundamental human rights.
Kogi State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Prof. James Akpa, while fielding questions from newsmen at a stakeholders’ meeting in his office, said the allegations against Governor Bello of double registration was still pending for investigation and was far from being over.
He, however, said the allegation was not strong enough to deny the governor his rights to seek for transfer of his voter’s card, stressing that INEC record for now has not shown that the governor did double registration until a permanent card is issued which will invariably indicate it in the INEC database.
Recall the governor first registered in Wuse, Abuja, in 2014 and then did another registration at the Government House, Lokoja last year, which generated a heat leading to the dismissal of two INEC staff and forceful retirement of one other senior staff.
However, INEC, last week, issued a temporary voter’s card to the governor in his Okene home town, a situation political watchers see as double-dealing on the part of the Commission.
But the INEC boss said the integrity of the commission could not be questioned in this matter as the commission was only following due process and has not thrown away the allegation against the governor.
The REC, who expressed worry over the apathy of voters in the state, said about 202,289 voter’s cards were still left uncollected and urged those who are yet to collect their cards to do so immediately.
He said as at February 27, 176,866 new voters had registered representing 90,553 males and 86,313 females while 7,169 have so far sought for transfer of their cards and 9,400 cards replaced.