13th February, 2019
The governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, Otunba Rotimi Paseda has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of withholding his Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC).
Paseda made this accusation while addressing the newsmen in Abeokuta, Ogun state at the party Secretariat in Ibara GRA.
Rotimi explained that he had the PVC which he used to vote in 2015 but that around August last year, he discovered that the card was pilling so he decided to go for another one with his family and his ward chairman based on his personal data with INEC.
“Myself, wife, son and some members went to register for new PVC sometimes last year when I discovered that my card was pilling; some of them even did change of relocation,and I did a replacement of PVC; the lady in charge at INEC defaced the card and gave me a form to fill which I did and she asked me to come me back in few weeks time.
“Since then, initially about every week, I’ve been stopping there to check but in the last two months I’ve been stopping there almost every two days or I either send somebody there to collect my PVC but they keep telling me it has not been produced, it’s coming in the next batch, now last batch has come my card was not there.
“The funniest thing is that my wife has gotten hers, my son has gotten his, everybody else that went with me on that day have gotten their PVCs except myself and my ward chairman and we all did it together in that office.
“The excuse I was given was that it has not been produced, there was no data, I don’t understand how come there is no data, I voted in 2015 with the card that was produced and given to me by INEC, how come between then and now there is no data and between then and now my card is not available?”
Paseda, however, vowed to perform his statutory role as a citizen even if he is not contesting as governor of the state again.