Intersociety-Nigeria
Monday, 6th Feb 2023
The Chairman (Prof Mahmood Yakubu)
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)
Thro
INEC’s National Commissioner for Information and Voter Education (Barr Festus Okoye)
The INEC’s National Headquarters
Plot 436 Zambezi Crescent, Maitama District
FCT, Abuja, Nigeria
Communication Modes:
WhatsApp: (withheld)
Email: festokoye2003@yahoo.com
Dear Sir,
An Open Letter
2022/2023 PVC Distribution: 13 Critical Questions INEC Must Urgently And Publicly Answer
…Lagos REC, Olu Agbaje must leave the state over incitement to genocide and ethnic cleansing targeting Ndigbo in Lagos
International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) is openly writing Your Commission, seeking on behalf of tens of millions of conscionable Nigerians, urgent and inexcusable public answers to the 13 raised critical questions relating to the 2022/2023 PVC Distribution and the final status of the National Register of Voters ahead of the country’s all-important Feb 25, 2023 Presidential Poll. This urgent letter of ours is part of our priceless advocacy geared towards deepening democracy including inclusive election andcitizens popular participation in credible democratic process in Nigeria or any part thereof.
It is the uncompromising position of ours that ‘the gateway into popular, credible and inclusive election especially presidential poll is massive enfranchisement by INEC of all citizens of voting age which the Commission must do without discrimination as to ethnicity, religion, place of birth, gender and class of the citizens of voting age’. Negatively speaking, ‘the gateway into massive poll rigging especially in Nigeria’s Feb 25, 2023 presidential poll is massive disenfranchisement of citizens of voting age on the grounds of their ethnic identity, religion, place of work, gender and class’. From all indications, Your Commission has earned notoriety in the latter.
Intersociety, therefore, minces no word to the effect that under Your Commission’s watch, millions of citizens of voting age of full blood Nigerian citizenship have been denied voting right by not being captured as voters and issued with permanent voters’ cards. Under INEC’s Watch, too, especially ahead of the Feb 25, 2023 Presidential Poll, there have been massive reports of personal data theft and destruction, diversion and impersonation of the registered citizens and citizens-under-registration’s PVCs or personal data supplied to INEC. Discriminatorily, tens of millions are denied registration and issuance of PVCs particularly the non Muslims of South-East and South-South residencies. Denied registration and massively disenfranchised also are large numbers of citizens of the two regions living outside their regions where they reside or work. Contrarily, citizens of voting age especially the non Christians in the North and other parts of the country are so maximally captured as registered voters and issued with PVCs that millions of children of underage and illegal Muslim migrants sharing same faith with them are sought after and registered as “voters” and issued with PVCs.
Consequently sir, INEC must provide answers to the following 13 critical public interest questions:
· What is the State by State breakdown of the PVCs distributed across the country by INEC between 12th Dec 2022 and 5th Feb 2023?
· How many of the 20m uncollected PVCs since 2019 (as disclosed on 31st May 2022 by Mohammed Haruna, INEC’s National Commissioner for FCT, Nasarawa, Plateau and Kaduna) and 9.5m uncollected PVCs since 2022 were distributed across the country as at 5th Feb 2023?
· How many of the newly printed 4m PVCs for registered citizens who newly transferred their PVCs were distributed across the country on State by State basis as at 5th Feb 2023?
· What is the total remaining number of the uncollected PVCs since 2019 and those of 2023 in the 36 States and the FCT as at 5th Feb 2023?
· What is the ethno-religious and gender identities and percentages of the distributed PVCs and their remainder as at 5th Feb 2023?
· How many PVCs belonging to the registered children of underage and illegal migrants were distributed by INEC across the 36 States and the FCT especially in Kano, Kastina, Kaduna, Sokoto, Kebbi, Jigawa, Zamfara, Bauchi, Yobe, Borno, Adamawa and Niger State as at 5th Feb 2023?
· INEC had on 6th Jan 2023 through its National Commissioner on Voter Education (Festus Okoye Esquire) on the Channels TV’s Politics Today, admitted that “INEC is cleaning up underage voters from its record”: What is the fate or status of the estimated eight million children of underage and two million illegal migrants presently stocked and legitimized by the Commission in the National Register of Voters as at 5th Feb 2023 ahead of the Feb 25, 2023 Presidential Poll?
· There are also estimated four million fake names compiled from booklets of passport photographs, posters of dead persons and fake names and images from outside the country presently stocked in the National Register of Voters: What is the fate or status of such fake or fictitious names as at 5th Feb 2023 ahead of the Feb 25, 2023 Presidential Poll?
· What is the actual number of registered voters or the final number of registered voters with which INEC is going to conduct the Feb 25, 2023 Presidential Poll?
· What is the actual or final number of registered voters with PVCs in Nigeria as at 5th Feb 2023 ahead of the Feb 25, 2023 Presidential Poll and their State by State breakdown?
· What is the fate or status of the estimated 10m compromised PVCs and their VINs as at 5th Feb 2023 ahead of the Feb 25, 2023 Presidential Poll; as admitted by INEC on 12th Dec 2022 through its National Commissioner in charge of FCT, Nasarawa, Plateau and Kaduna, Mohammed Haruna?
· What is the fate or status of the estimated six million stolen or diverted PVCs or more that disappeared from INEC custody regarding the Feb 25, 2023 Presidential Poll?
· What concrete measures are being put in place by INEC to ensure that the deployment of IReV, BVAS and PVC accreditation/voting technologies, processes and procedures is done across board in the 36 States and the FCT on Feb 25, 2023 Presidential Poll without discriminatory recourse to dual policies of sticking to or insisting on IReV, BVAS and PVC accreditation/voting technologies, processes and procedures in the South and substantially collapsing same and allowing manual voting in the North especially in the States of Kano, Katsina, Kaduna, Jigawa, Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara in North-West; Borno, Bauchi, Yobe and Adamawa in North-East; and Niger State in North-Central; sobriquet: “Nigeria’s center of presidential poll rigging”, as was the case in the 2015 and 2019 presidential polls?.
Lagos REC, Agbaje Must Leave The State Over Incitement To Genocide, Etc Against Ndigbo In Lagos
Following widespread outcries that greeted the brazen partisanship of the Resident Electoral Commissioner for Lagos State, Olusegun Agbaje, over his anti South-East or Igbo genocidal comments/PVC posture, the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) is strongly calling for immediate removal of the REC. Live and verifiable video clips have in few days gone by, saturated the social media spaces showing systematic and orchestrated plots by the REC to deprive the Nigerian citizens of South-East resident in Lagos their PVCs and rights to participate and vote in the Feb 25, 2023 Presidential Poll. Apart from genocidally referring to them as “South-East migrants”, the REC also did not hide his hatred of the South-East residents in Lagos by denying them PVCs under frivolous circumstances.
As if these were not enough, the REC ended up vicariously, if not directly by inciting native residents; a ground laying for unleashing “Election Day and Post Election Day” ethnic cleansing against the South-East residents in the State. He also hatefully lied unpardonably by describing the decades-old South-East residents in Lagos as “those that migrated and settled in Lagos to escape insecurity in the South-East”. It must be remembered that not long ago, batches of carefully sorted out PVCs with ethno-religious marks bearing Igbo and other Eastern names were carted away from INEC custody and scattered or dumped in large numbers inside gutters and streets along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. In 2015 and 2019, organized group violence was unleashed on Igbo citizens’ resident in Lagos by loyalists of the leading political actors in Lagos for conscientiously voting for candidates of their choice. In the 2019 Presidential Poll, Igbo properties including homes and market stores as well as polling units in their areas were targeted, attacked and wantonly destroyed including being razed or set ablaze; and as if these were not enough, millions of South-East voters were denied PVCs by INEC under the watch of theLagos REC in the just conducted PVC distribution in the State.
Totality of these is therefore tantamount to ethnic profiling with intent to instigate incitement to genocide and ethnic cleansing against the South-East residents in Lagos State. Intersociety hereby makes bold to say that the Lagos REC is unfit to continue as Lagos REC and must be redeployed as a matter of uttermost immediacy. INEC must also thoroughly investigate REC Olusegun Agbaje including massive denial of PVCs to South-Easterners in Lagos State in Igbo residentially dominant areas of Oshodi-Isolo, Mafoluku-Oke Afa, Ijora Badia, Amukoko, Alaba, Surulere, Orile, Itire, Ijesha, Cele, Okota, Ajugunle, Olodi Apapa, Coconut, Ojokoro-Ijaye, Agbara, Ojo, Okoko, Satellite Town, FESTAC, Mushin, Ojuelegba, etc.
For: International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety)
/s E. Umeagbalasi
Emeka Umeagbalasi, B.Sc., M.Sc.
Criminologist/Researcher
Board Chair @ Intersociety
/s C. Umeche
Chinwe Umeche Esquire, LL.B, BL
Head, Democracy and Good Governance Program @Intersociety
/s U. Igboeli
Obianuju Joy Igboeli Esquire, LL.B, BL
Head, Civil Liberties and Rule of Law @ Intersociety
/s C.Udegbunam
Chidinma Udegbunam Esquire, LL.B, BL
Head, Campaign and Publicity Department @ Intersociety
Contacts:
Phone/WhatsApp: +2348174090052
Email: info@intersociety-ng.org
Website: https://intersociety-ng.org