Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has been accused of frustrating the bid by eligible voters in the South-East to register for the voter’s card before the June 30 deadline.
Investigations across the zone revealed some complaints by registrants against INEC staff.
Apart from the widespread bureaucratic bottlenecks that are slowing the registration process across the South-East, there are also allegations that some INEC officials now collect money to move their machines to other locations, and from individuals to get them registered.
Abia-based political activist and businessman, Mr Chukwuebuka Ezennaka, alleged that he went to a registration centre at the Umuahia North Local Government where he met with the Electoral Officer, Mrs. Onyigbo, and requested that more machines be provided at other locations to enable more people get registered.
But to his surprise, the INEC officer allegedly demanded some payment for the request to be granted.
According to him: “After I explained to her and said we will need at least six days, she told me that I will have to pay N50,000 for each day as logistics and that she will release four of her workers who will help to carry out the registration,” Ezennaka alleged.
Ezennaka said that he offered to pay N20,000 per day but she refused and said that politicians seeking elective positions pay N100,000 daily whenever they want INEC to come to their communities and other locations to register voters.
He noted that Onyigbo had told him that “she charges money because her office at the LG does not get funding that comes into the state from the headquarters and that is supposed to take care of basic logistics.”
To get the INEC to take two machines to the Abia State Polytechnic and register students, Ezennaka said that he and other individuals paid N60,000 – N30,000 for each – apart from an extra 10,000 they paid for feeding and transportation of the officials.
He alleged that he had written to Dr. Iloh Joseph, the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state, informing him about the challenges people were facing with the registration process.
“I told him that many people were yet to register in Abia North and South and market areas, but he said it was untrue and that INEC had taken care of all those areas in 2021.”
Investigation by Ikengaonline further reveals that in addition to lack of enough machines, there is also a lackadaisical attitude to work on the part of officials in the state.
On a visit to the Umuahia North LG headquarters, it was discovered that while they had two machines working, only one was used to register people.
Workers were seen holding discussions.
It was also discovered that some of the officials do not show up at work on time.
While they are required to resume work by 9 a.m., some of them come around 11 a.m., leaving people who want to register stranded.
On one of the occasions when he visited the headquarters of the commission in Umuahia, Ezennaka said he saw eight machines, but only six were being used to register people because some of the officials did not come to work.
At the end of the day, less than 500 people were registered out of over 2000 people present.
Across LGs, less than 100 people get registered every day out of thousands waiting to register.
“We want more machines and more locations because there are people who are willing to help INEC with the registration,” said Ezennaka. “There are voters who cannot even afford to get to the offices.”
But when contacted, Mrs. Onyigbo denied that she or any officer had ever asked for money for machines to be used for registration of voters outside of the LG.
“The allegation is not true, just disregard it,” she said.
Public Affairs Officer of INEC in the state, Bamidele Oyetunde, also said that he had not received any complaints regarding the allegations of extortion.
“No officer can ask anybody to pay money for machines to be taken to locations outside the office.
“We have even taken some of our machines to some communities that organized themselves,” he said.
Oyetunji said that the commission has so far received enough machines that can take care of the 17 local governments in the state, adding that there is no local government that does not have up to three machines currently.
At Onitsha North and South; Idemili North and Nnewi South; for instance, in Anambra State, there are allegations that officials are collecting between N1500 and N2000 from voters while those who are not willing to pay are asked to remain outside or go home and come back the next day.
All efforts to get Mr Festus Okoye, Chairman INEC Information & Voter Education Committee, to respond to allegations of extortion by members of the commission failed as he neither responded to text messages sent to him nor returned his calls.
Read the full story, “Investigation: How INEC’s bureaucratic bottlenecks, other factors weaken participation in Nigeria’s Southeast” here.
