Plot to Disenfranchise Voters in the South-East Exposed, Forum Raises Alarm
A socio-political group based in Onitsha, Anambra State, Ndigbo Unity Forum says the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC is complicit in a grand plot to disenfranchise millions of voters in the South-East from casting their ballot in the 2023 general election.
In a statement Signed by Augustine Chukwudum, National President of the forum, the group said that after a visit to all of the South-East States to mobilise the people to get their voter cards, it was confronted with an ugly plot to stop voters from next year’s election.
Chukwudum said that in all the local governments that the Unity Forum visited, millions of voter cards were lying uncollected while the INEC officials insisted on collecting between 2000 and 5,000 naira before they would give out the voter cards.
He stated that the situation has been made worse by the non-challance of the state governors who are not showing any interest in stopping the regime of bribe and extortion by the INEC staff and who themselves are not making any effort to mobilize members of the communities to get registered.
The Unity Forum president called on both INEC and South-East state government officials to move the registration exercise from community to community and ensure that people collect their permanent voter cards.
They also called on the traditional rulers and presidents general of the autonomous communities to get involved and make sure people of the South-East are enabled to exercise their right to vote in the 2023 elections because that is the only way they can vote and enthrone a political leadership and government of their choice.
