20th January, 2011
The Ondo State Chapter of the Labour Party (LP) has raised an alarm over the parallel registration being done by the State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
A statement issued by the State Chairman of the Labour Party, Dr. Olaiya Oni in which he drew the attention of the National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Attahiru Jega, stated that the exercise was preparatory to plans by the PDP to rig the general election like it did in 2007 when it falsified the voters’ registers.
Dr. Oni, who commended the INEC boss, described him as a man of impeccable records, but called on him to arrest the situation in Ondo State and be aware of the latest clandestine moves by PDP to thwart the exercise and also rig at all costs in the state.
His words: “We are at a loss at the purpose of this compilation when the full electoral register will be displayed to all Nigerians at the appropriate time for verification. Or is the PDP in Ondo State doubting the veracity of the registration exercise by the Independent National Electoral Commission that it needed its own independent compilation to authenticate the result of the official registration exercise?”
The PDP in his own parallel registration even asked such questions from prospective voters as: “Party Affiliation? Telephone Number ? Pray, what will the PDP do with registrant’s telephone numbers and party affiliation? Is it to intimidate or coerce?
“We do not want to leave anything to chance, especially as the PDP in Ondo State brought dead people to vote for it in 2007, hence we are raising this issue to alert Prof Jega about what we observed in Ondo State for notation as it is the civic responsibility of all well-meaning Nigerians to assist Prof. Jega to succeed in providing us with a credible voters’ register as the foundation for a free and fair election in our Country in April, 2011.”